(JTA) — A Brooklyn construction worker has been arrested in connection with the murder of Brooklyn real estate developer Menachem Stark.

Kendel Felix, 26, was employed by a contractor who worked for Stark, the New York Daily News reported. The newspaper reported that Felix is described by police sources as a “main player” in Stark’s death. He was arrested on Wednesday night.

A police source told the Daily News that Felix and two accomplices wanted to rob Stark, not kill him. He reportedly told police they accidentally suffocated Stark when he struggled to escape.

Felix and two unnamed accomplices were taken into police custody and questioned earlier on Wednesday. They reportedly were linked to the crime by evidence discovered in the van used to kidnap Stark.

The kidnapping was captured on a security camera outside Stark’s office in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

Stark’s body was found Jan. 3 on suburban Long Island some 16 miles from his office, from where he was kidnapped the previous evening. Stark, the father of seven, reportedly was suffocated before his body was placed in a dumpster outside a Great Neck gas station and burned, according to police.

State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Brooklyn Democrat, praised the borough’s district attorney, Ken Thompson, and the NYPD for “their tenacity in pursuing the murder suspects.”

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