Nassau County police have accused a Queens man of trying to kill his 2-year-old daughter in what they believe to be a botched murder-suicide attempt after the two were found covered in a mix of toxic chemical powders in a parked car in Lawrence earlier this week.
Khemchan Sulaiman, who remains hospitalized, was charged with second-degree attempted murder. He was ordered held without bail following his bedside arraignment Wednesday. The girl is also still hospitalized.
The 45-year-old is accused of dousing himself and the toddler with ammonium chloride, which is commonly found in fire extinguishers, and a pesticide known as Sevin. At least one of the two chemicals was found in the girl’s bottle.
“It appears the child did ingest some of what was in the bottle,” Detective Lt. Kevin Smith, the department’s chief spokesman, told reporters at a press briefing Tuesday.
The child and her father were found suffering from respiratory distress in his car parked behind a business on Central Avenue shortly after 8 a.m. Monday. Both were found covered in the white powder, which initially prompted the Haz-Mat Unit to investigate.
Investigators had no apparent motive but Smith noted that the father and mother, with whom the girl lives in Brooklyn, were embroiled in some kind of dispute. It was unclear if the couple was married or if the man left a suicide note.
It was not immediately clear why the father and daughter were in the Five Towns area. Smith said Sulaiman was employed as an MTA mechanic and had unlimited visitation rights.
