Neighbors said the drunken Queens man who broke into his estranged wife’s home and set off a gas explosion seemed like anything but a ticking time bomb.
A day after Anroop Parasaram, 50, was killed in a fiery explosion in South Ozone Park, residents inspecting the rubble that remained said he seemed like a nice man.
That assessment was in sharp contrast with court orders that were issued to keep him apart from the woman he terrorized before torching her home, injuring police officers and displacing nearby neighbors.
The estranged husband had three past orders of protection filed against him barring him from going near his wife and family, cops said. The last order of protection expired on Nov. 29, 2024, police said.
“I would never think he was that type of person,” said a woman who lived across the street from the three-story home on 130th St. near 109th Ave. “He was the most polite person I ever met. I can’t see him as a monster.”
The neighbor said Parasaram and his wife appeared to be the model couple, although she said she hadn’t seen him in the last couple of months.
“Nobody knew they had any problems,” she said.
Another neighbor, Brian, 64, said Parasaram used to help him shovel snow.
“If he see you doing something, you’re struggling, he offers help and that’s what I call a nice person as a neighbor,” he said. “Well, I’m sorry to hear he lost his life.”
Cops were called to settle a domestic dispute inside the basement apartment of the building early Thursday morning.
The chaos began when Parasaram showed up at the home with a knife, forcing his way into the basement apartment by shoving an air conditioner out of a window, police say. He then locked himself inside the place.
As cops unlocked the door to the home — with the key Parasaram’s wife gave them — a massive explosion sent glass shards and rubble raining down upon them, dramatic body-worn camera video shared by the NYPD shows.
Parasaram was found dead “beneath the rubble caused by the explosion,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
Surveillance video recovered by cops shows the suspect walking to the area carrying two large bags with yellow cannisters inside, police said.
Homes on both sides of the address were damaged, FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said, adding that the FDNY was working with the Red Cross to provide assistance to the 16 people left displaced by the explosion.
Work crews on Friday demolished what was left of the destroyed building.
