Lindenhurst man indicted for alleged stabbing death of wife

A Lindenhurst man was indicted Thursday for allegedly stabbing his wife to death as the couple’s teenage son tried to intervene to save her life, authorities said.

Ryszard Murawski, 44, faces felony charges of second-degree murder and aggravated criminal contempt in connection with the Jan. 3 attack on Wioleta Murawski in the backyard of the family home.

The couple’s 15-year-old son frantically called police amid the attack begging for help, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a news release.

“The sheer horror that young man must have felt to witness his mother being attacked is unfathomable,” Tierney said. “The brutality of this defendant’s alleged actions are only made worse by the fact that he attacked the mother of his child in front of that child. Now, he will be held to account for his actions.”

Wioleta Murawski had obtained an order of protection against her husband a week earlier, authorities said.

At his arraignment Thursday, Murawski pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail by acting Supreme Court Justice Karen M. Wilutis, court records show.

Keith O'Halloran, Murawski's Westhampton Beach-based defense attorney, said Thursday, “My client has been distraught. It’s a tragic situation that we’re trying to begin our investigation of at this point.”

Police received a call from the son at 8:33 p.m. on Jan. 3 stating his father had stabbed his mother and fled in a black GMC pickup truck, Tierney said in a statement.

The teenager “begged the police for help as he desperately tried to save his mother’s life,” Tierney said. The son told police that when he returned home from a friend’s house, he heard his mother screaming for help.

The boy “ran to the back yard where he saw Murawski stabbing his mother with a large, serrated knife,” Tierney said. “The boy jumped on his father and struggled with him until his mother was able to break free.”

Wioleta Murawski was able to stumble across the street before collapsing with her son by her side, Tierney said.

She was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The father, fleeing in the pickup truck, refused to pull over when police tried to stop him. A chase ensued, with multiple police units pursuing Ryszard Murawski with lights and sirens on for more than seven miles.

Finally, Murawski lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the side of a building.

His home surveillance system captured the attack, Tierney said. Police recovered a knife near the location of the fatal stabbing. A “substantial amount of blood” was also found, trailing from the area of the attack to across the street where the victim collapsed.

Murawski's next court date is Feb. 7.