How creepy video, angry Manhattan mob played part in arrest of Yazmeen Williams murder suspect

The discovery of a badly decomposed body dumped on a Manhattan street was the first clue in a grisly murder case that stunned the city last week — and enraged neighbors of victim Yazmeen Williams, who cops say was killed by a pistol-packing, wheelchair-bound ex-con with a decades-long rap sheet.

On July 5, residents of a Kips Bay block on E. 27th St. near Third. Ave. complaining of the smell coming from a large bundle on a wheeled dolly led responding officers cops to human remains inside a blue sleeping bag wrapped in a large plastic bag. The body was in such an advanced state of decomposition that its gender could not be determined.

As cops moved the corpse, a single bullet fell out of the back of the head.

It wasn’t until family members of 31-year-old Buffalo State College grad Yazmeen Williams reported her missing that NYPD detectives were able to connect the body in the bag to the vibrant, attractive young woman who had lived for a time in the nearby Straus Houses on E. 28th St.

“My birthday is at the end of the month. She was saying, ‘Mom, we’re going out! We’re gonna celebrate,’” the victim’s heartbroken mother Nicole Williams told the Daily News. “She’s a wonderful daughter.”

Much was made of how Williams’ bright future had been cut short. At a press conference, Mayor Adams and Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer said Williams had recently been hired to work for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

“Who would do this to her?” asked Williams’ shocked aunt Nisha Ramirez on July 8, what would have been the first day of her niece’s new job.

The answer came quickly.

As detectives delved into the high-profile crime, a chilling new clue emerged: Police had surveillance footage of a man in a motorized wheelchair dragging a sleeping bag on a dolly along the street where Williams was found.

Residents of the Straus Houses began to immediately suspect 55-year-old Chad Irish, who lived on E. 28th St. near Second Ave. — especially after video of the man in a wheelchair was widely seen on social media.

Irish, who got around in a wheelchair, has an extensive criminal history dating back to 1985. His convictions include robbery, assault and drug possession, cops said.

In April 1994, he was charged with attempted murder and arson for trying to blow up his uncle’s Bronx home by dislodging a gas pipe leading to two propane tanks and causing an explosion. He was ultimately convicted of attempted arson and sentenced to three years in prison.

Most notably, Williams had been living with Irish since November. She told family members the older man with the checkered past was just a friend. But much to their relief, she had recently told her family she would be moving out.

“I could feel it. I kept saying, ‘She needs to get out of that house,’” Essie Graham said Tuesday of her slain granddaughter. “I wanted someone to go over there and make a lot of noise. But nobody really took it seriously.”

As police built their case against Irish as the likely suspect, Straus Houses residents and friends of the victim began repeatedly confronting the ex-con about her killing.

Irish responded by pulling a gun — twice — on a neighbor last Monday.

“I said ‘Yo, what did you do to that young girl?’” recounted Antowne Frazier, 47. “He pulled it from under the seat like he was sitting on it.”

After a second confrontation with Irish in Bellevue South Park that day, Frazier called 911, also reporting the earlier incident, and began to pursue Irish.

“When I gave chase, everybody in the park followed.”

Irish made it into his building as a large angry mob formed on the street outside. The crowd soon grew to include members of Williams’ family, who were tending to her memorial less than two blocks away when the horde of people caught their attention.

By then, the police had arrived to take Irish into custody. Placing the suspect on an ambulance gurney, cops and medics had to fight their way through the irate mob while carrying Irish, who was being mocked and jeered.

“F–k you! F–k you!” one woman screamed as cops held back the crowd and placed Irish in a waiting ambulance.

Irish was charged with concealment of a human corpse and two counts of weapons possession and menacing, but it wasn’t until Wednesday that he was charged with Williams’ murder.

“I didn’t do anything. I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about. Who is Yazmeen?” a defiant Irish told reporters as he was taken from the 13th Precinct to Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday evening. “They said I did something to somebody. I didn’t do anything.”

At his arraignment Thursday, prosecutors said they had more chilling video, of Irish screaming at Williams in the hallway of their building June 26 that he would shoot her.

Detectives believe Irish made good on his threat on July 1, several days before she was found.

One theory detectives are looking into is whether the murder emerged from a dispute over drugs, said a high-ranking police source.

If Irish is convicted of the murder, he faces life in prison, said Assistant District Attorney Tricia Phillips.

The same camera that captured Irish’s threat recorded Williams leaving the apartment she shared with her killer on June 30 as she threw some trash down the building’s garbage chute, prosecutors said.

She returned to the apartment and never left again.

“God ain’t call her home,” said Williams’ grandmother. “That guy did. He is the devil.”