Retired Beacon Cop Pleads "Not Guilty" To Murdering Roommate; Hinted At Killing Prior; What Friends and Neighbors Are Saying
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Public Facebook profiles for Eddie Irizarry (top) and Casey Cuddy (Bottom).
Retired Beacon Police Officer, Edison "Eddie" Irizarry (age 52), pleaded Not Guilty in Beacon City Court to all 3 charges against him in the killing of his roommate Casey Cuddy (age 58): Murder in the Second Degree; Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree; and Criminal Possession of a Firearm.
According to Beacon City Court, Eddie entered his plea the day after his arrest on Tuesday, July 22nd. He was scheduled to return to court for a preliminary hearing, but the case has been transferred to August 5th in Dutchess County Supreme Court 10 Market, Poughkeepsie, NY at 9:30am, as confirmed by the Clerks Office in that court. This date has been published elsewhere as a different date, but as of today, is August 5th. ALBB will continue to monitor for future court re-schedulings.
City of Beacon Police were the first to detain Eddie at the apartment he shared with his new roommate, Casey Cuddy. According to several witnesses, Eddie was detained calmly and without resistance. The investigation was handed over to New York State Police “in order to maintain the highest integrity,” explained Beacon Police Chief Tom Figlia in a press release the day after the incident, since Eddie had served with the Beacon Police for 17 years before retiring in 2021.
About The Day Of The Crime
On Monday evening (July 21, 2025) at 9:02pm, City of Beacon Police responded to a 911 call to the residence of 86 Rombout Avenue from Edison “Eddie” Irizarry, that he had shot his roommate, Casey Cuddy. When Eddie called 911, reported Mid-Hudson News, he told the dispatch that “Cuddy had threatened him with a shotgun, and Irizarry claimed to have fired three rounds at Cuddy.” Eddie and Casey lived on the first floor of the two-family house, and another group of people lived on the second floor.
Screenshot of social media post allegedly made by Edison “Eddie” Irizarry, who goes by “Izzy Zarry” in his Facebook account, published less than an hour before Casey Cuddy was allegedly shot by Eddie, according to local community members and Mid-Hudson News. Multiple “friends” have since Unfriended Eddie’s account. Sixteen remain as “followers.”
Mid-Hudson News reported the following day: “Less than an hour before Irizarry is believed to have shot Cuddy, he made a cryptic post on his Facebook page [which goes by Izzy Zarry] that said, ‘You guys got me if I kill a Petti file.’ A source close to the investigation told Mid-Hudson News that Irizarry and Cuddy had been arguing after Irizarry accused the victim of being a pedophile.”
A source close to the situation told A Little Beacon Blog that Eddie had been seen speaking with another male earlier that Monday around the corner from Casey's home on the northeast corner of Rombout and Cliff Streets. “That morning,” a neighbor told ALBB, “it appeared that Eddie was confiding in the other male out on the sidewalk. I could hear their voices pretty clearly. Something was going on with Eddie at that point. Why so angry, I don’t know. I don’t know who the other guy was. He didn’t seem from around here.”
The Times Union reported that Casey had been seen out riding his bike only two hours before he was shot. The newspaper reported: “Neighbors described the victim as an easygoing nurse practitioner who liked to pet the neighborhood dogs. Joanna Neville was walking at Dennings Point Park in Beacon around 7pm Monday when she heard a bicycle on the gravel behind her. She turned and saw a familiar face: Casey Cuddy, a neighbor with whom she’d become friendly since adopting a dog last year,” the Times Union reported.
“Casey was also knowledgeable about attachment theory and attuned to trauma. He was sensitive about potentially upsetting topics and knew when to push and when to back off. More than anything, he was kind and thoughtful and I am beside myself that he is gone.”
Joanna told the newspaper: “[Casey] was in a good mood.” The newspaper expanded to report that “she was shocked to learn he’d been shot a few hours after their encounter. ‘He was a nice guy, It’s terrible,’” Joanna said.
Details of Eddie Irizarry’s Arrest
When the Beacon Police arrived on the scene Monday evening, they realized that they knew Eddie. Several neighbors describe how the Beacon Police put him into handcuffs and detained him in a Beacon police vehicle. One neighbor described the Beacon Police’s handling of Eddie as “gentle", and the neighbors across the street, Tony Ruperto and Brian Garritano, described to the Times Union: “He wasn’t resisting,” Tom told the newspaper. “He was very calm.”
Being that Eddie used to serve on the force, the Beacon Police then turned the entire investigation over to the New York State Police, “to maintain the highest integrity,” the press release said from Beacon Police Chief Tom Figlia.
Neither press release from the Beacon Police or the New York State Police mentioned the shotgun when they detailed the nature of the shooting. The New York State Police press release stated that Eddie shot Casey. It has not been stated if a shotgun was found at the residence, or if the gun used in the shooting was permitted by Eddie.
Sources told Mid-Hudson News that since his arrest, Eddie has “recanted portions of his statement before being charged with the felonies of murder, criminal possession of a weapon, and criminal possession of a firearm.”
According to the New York State Police’s press release, Eddie’s preliminary hearing in City of Beacon Court was scheduled for July 25, 2025, at 10:00am. However, that has since been re-scheduled. He was remanded to Dutchess County Jail and held without bail.
Regarding the Pedo Accusation
When the killing reached Beacon’s Facebook community, some people defended the killing as an elimination of a sex offender, without demanding to see proof. These people implied that executing someone at whim was acceptable.
Neighbors of Casey on Rombout Avenue rushed to defend the dead man. Casey, whose full name is Wilbur Casey Cuddy, is not listed in New York State’s public sex offender registry, and was a licensed psychiatric nurse practitioner. This license would be an additional level of background checking.
It is unknown at this time if any individuals in Eddie’s friend circle responded to his social media post with encouragement of him to execute his plan. Some Beacon locals, including some who have moved away but keep up with Beacon news, have been known to use aggressive language in comments, including curse words and threats to safety.
Background on Edison “Eddie” Irizarry
Numerous friends of Eddie in Beacon have expressed being shocked, confused and sad. Friends say that he loves to fish, and is a calm person Otherwise, as of now, people who know Eddie who live in Beacon do not want to go on record with what they know about his character or life. Multiple Facebook “Friends” of Eddie’s account have since unfriended him. Sixteen “Followers” remain.
Eddie’s Facebook page, which goes by “Izzy Zarry,” states that he lives in “Never Never.”
His LinkedIn account says he lives in Jacksonville, NC. Public pictures on his Facebook account show scenes of him on a beach with surf. Unconfirmed is why he returned to Beacon after locating to NC, and if his time in Beacon was temporary. .
Numerous neighbors of Casey told ALBB that Eddie moved in to Casey’s residence in or about April 2025, and that they had not usually seen roommates at Casey’s apartment. The Highlands Current reported that Casey took out a classified ad for a roommate years ago in November 2022. Otherwise, neighbors say they saw Casey frequently as a communicative person out and about, who enjoyed his cats.
Background on Casey Cuddy
Wilbur K. Casey Cuddy, PMHNP-C was a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, according to his website and HealthCare4PPL.com. His website says he specialized in the treatment of trauma, “whether complex/developmental or chronic/single episode;” and that he “diagnosed and treated most other psychiatric disorders (except ADD/ADHD).” He earned Engineering Science and Nursing Bachelor's Degrees, and an MBA and Nursing Master's Degrees. He graduated from the University of California, San Francisco, with a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), according to Psychology Today.
Since 2015, he “worked as a board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP-C) with small rural services, with medium & large county agencies, and now with private & group telehealth practices,” he said on his website. “All settings have involved the treatment of diverse populations with moderate-to-severe mental illnesses.”
One local mother told A Little Beacon Blog that her child was in the care of Casey Cuddy, and was shocked to learn of his death. She said he specialized in talk-therapy with her child.
“Something I found so profound was his respect for single mothers,” she told ALBB. “He mentioned that his mom was a single mother and he took the time to acknowledge the hard work I was putting in. That means something in this patriarchal society. It meant a lot to me. Casey was kind to my child, direct and blunt, but in a developmentally appropriate way. He called on my child to take some responsibility for my child’s own path. Casey was also knowledgeable about attachment theory and attuned to trauma. He was sensitive about potentially upsetting topics and knew when to push and when to back off. More than anything, he was kind and thoughtful and I am beside myself that he is gone.”
Neighbors told ALBB that Casey lived at 86 Rombout Avenue with his cats for a number of years, and that he was outgoing and talkative. He drove a white van and carried a protest poster, “Boycott Everything.”
The neighbors who lived across the street, Tony Ruperto and Brian Garritano, told the Times Union that “they didn’t know the alleged shooter, who they believed had moved in just two months ago, but were friendly with Cuddy, who they said had lived in the building since before they moved in two years ago.” The pair did see police “swarm the first floor apartment” after the 911 call. The next day, at 10am, Tony and Brian did see police remove a body bag from the apartment, they told the newspaper.
In a client review left on August 28, 2018 on Casey’s website, a patient wrote about him: "In the time frame of 3-4 months, Casey Cuddy has been one of the reasons that I am alive today. He helped me work through so many of the problems I refused to face. When I attempted suicide, he called me before I could call him to make sure I was doing okay. It makes me sad that he's moving back to the East Coast and actually made me tear up a bit. I hope he knows how much he truly helped me find my confidence and self-worth, and he helped me realize how much I actually sacrifice for those I love. He's been a positive impact on my life."
According to a theater program found by the Highlands Current from when Casey was an actor performing in a play at the County Players theater in Wappingers Falls, Casey was from the Finger Lakes region, which is in New York State. The newspaper reported that Casey “moved to the Hudson Valley in September 2022 after living in Los Angeles and Oregon. In November 2022, Cuddy placed a classified ad in The Current seeking a roommate to share his first-floor Beacon apartment.”
It is unknown at this time if Casey continued to take roommates, or if this was a new occasion. One of his client’s told ALBB that he rented an office on Rte. 52, but had left the office and was doing telehealth only.
Casey indicated on his Facebook page that he kept a Facebook profile to list on Facebook Marketplace.
Readers Have Responded to This News With Statements LIke:
“Beacon Has Changed!” or “These NYC People Moving To Beacon Are Changing Things!”
This was situation involving people who lived in the area for a long time. Additionally, the older version of the Beacon Police have a documented history of police brutality which resulted in the federal investigation by the Department of Justice of the Beacon Police force. The department entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice in December 2010 to “reform its policies and practices.”
Eddie served on the Beacon Police force in Beacon for 17 years, retiring in 2021, which puts his starting date near 2004. This is within Beacon’s era of when the Police Department was accused of police brutality, racial profiling and nepotism, as thoroughly covered by the Beacon Dispatch in 2006, one of Beacon’s original blogs.
Eddie doesn’t seem to have public lawsuits against him, as other officers from that time do, such as Richard Sassi Jr., the son of the Police Chief of the same name at the time. The son, Detective Sassi Jr., was found in his boxer shorts in his female informant’s closet after making advances on her until her boyfriend came over, to which Sassi made a false call of burglary to 911, for which he was charged.
As for Eddie, when he was a patrolman in 2014, he was ordered to fill in for 2 Beacon detectives who were suspended, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal. While the Police Chief at the time declined to comment on the circumstances of the suspensions, the article reported that the two detectives “were married but divorce paperwork was filed in 2012, according to a document filed with the Dutchess County Clerk's Office.”
