Florind Belliu and Ornela Shehi Bronx murder suicide: Aspiring Albanian actor pushes wife to her death from 6th floor Bronx building before jumping moments later. Couple leave two young children behind.
‘If you can make it in NYC, you can make it anywhere …’
A Bronx man who leapt to his death on his birthday along with his wife from their sixth floor balcony has been identified as an actor and aspiring filmmaker from Albania.
Florind Belliu, 35, and his spouse Ornela Shehi, 28, were found in the rear courtyard of 2199 Cruger Ave. around 9:15 a.m. Saturday, police sources said.
Shehi was caught on video plunging from the building’s sixth floor first and hitting the alleyway, with Belliu landing seconds later, sources said. The couple were parents to two young children. Cops said the circumstances surrounding the deaths were unclear.
Neighbors say they heard shouting just before the couple fell and now police sources say investigators are looking into the deadly incident as the tragic result of a possible fight between the pair according to the nydailynews.
Bronx couple die after fall from 6th-floor apartment, may have been arguing: NYPD https://t.co/GpMlEYycT4
— Frankoh828 A CHICAGON Views (@AChicagon) August 7, 2022
Deaths feared to be murder result of murder suicide
The doomed couple, who had two young sons, ages 6 and 2, were inside the apartment at the time with one neighbor recalling hearing a child cry out, ‘Mom! Mom!’ after the tragic fall.
Video reportedly shows Shehi plunging from the building’s sixth floor first and landing in the alleyway, with her husband Belliu following seconds later.
The couple’s cause of death was still pending Sunday, according to the Medical Examiner’s office, as it awaits ‘additional investigative information.’ It was feared the father may have pushed his wife out the balcony in a homicide before jumping to his own death moments later in an apparent murder suicide.
Belliu was a graduate of the University of Arts in Tirana, Albania, and had attempted to participate in a number of cinema productions and episodic parts at the national theater before moving to the US, EuroNews Albania reported.
A few years ago, he moved to the United States with his wife, Ornela. There, they tried to start over.
As of two years ago, Belliu was working on two books and a movie script he hoped to pitch to Netflix, the report said.
Police sources said he may have been recently working as a livery driver to help make ends meet. Florind worked as a real estate agent in the US for a while.
‘Why bro, why bro…did you choose this path?
Fellow Albanian actor Cela Irgen mourned his friend on Instagram.
‘You broke my heart my dear friend,’ Irgen wrote in Albanian, the nypost reported.
Another Albanian thespian, Andi Llabuti, posted on Facebook, ‘Why bro, why bro…did you choose this path?
‘Why didn’t you think a little about your family, your mother and your sisters? … You made us so sad that there is no explanation!’
Sources said cops had never received reports of domestic violence related to the couple, who moved into the building with their two young kids about four months ago.
The couple’s deaths left loved ones who arrived at the scene sobbing on the sidewalk. Belliu’s mother was seen wailing in pain.
‘He was never in the right state of mind’
The deceased dad had previously been reported to be ’emotionally disturbed’ and missing in April, before cops located him in the 48th Precinct, sources said.
Neighbors described the pair as a ‘quiet couple’ who ‘kept to themselves,’ and were often seen taking walks — but also that Belliu had been seen visibly angry Friday.
‘I’ve seen them always buying things for the house, like every day together, with two kids together, we didn’t recognize there was something wrong,’ Shadie Perkaj, the wife of the building’s super told the nypost.
She said Saturday was Belliu’s birthday.
Neighbor Robert Sanchez described Belliu as someone who didn’t have a friendly demeanor.
‘When you would walk next to him he just didn’t have a friendly demeanor so I would just keep it moving,’ Sanchez said. ‘They kept to themselves and were very isolated.’
A worker at a local cafe where the husband and wife frequented stated the husband always appearing withdrawn and disconcerted.
‘He was never in the right state of mind. He would come have a coffee or eat and would not interact with the fellow members of the community,’ the employee at Zymi, said. ‘The wife never really said anything. She was always quiet and isolated but they always seemed to have the kids (with them).’
A friend of the dead man, Aldo Sulollari, wrote in Albanian on Facebook, ‘A little while ago I wished you a happy birthday and you couldn’t answer me.
‘I love you so much brother.’’
Belliu’s friend, Elona Caslli also mourned her lost friend on Facebook.
‘What great pain made you [kill yourself]?!’ Caslli wrote in Albanian.
‘A multiple tragedy for which there is no word of consolation. God give strength to your children and parents.’
