Cops: Suspected Serial Killer Had an 'Arsenal' at Home

Alleged serial killer Rex Heuermann was arrested last week at his Manhattan office instead of his home because of concerns about the huge number of weapons he kept at his Long Island residence, authorities say. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison says the 59-year-old architect kept more than 200 guns in a vault at his home, NBC reports. "We wanted to take him into custody somewhere outside the house, because of access to those weapons," Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney tells ABC.

Former NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce says investigators likely would have learned that Heuermann held dozens of gun permits and chosen to arrest him away from home. Harrison told Fox on Monday that the the suspect had an "arsenal in a vault that he had downstairs." "It's concerning, regarding the guns being registered or legal or not, that's something we're still taking a look at," the commissioner said.

Heuermann has been charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman, and he is the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes. The bodies of all four women were found at Long Island's Gilgo Beach in 2010. Investigators are continuing to search the suspect's Massapequa Park home, the AP reports. In recent days, they have removed a life-sized doll in a glass case and a portrait of a woman with a bruised face, along with more than 200 firearms. (More Rex Heuermann stories.)