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After the boy’s death, Zubko-Valva, of Valley Stream, was granted temporary custody of Thomas’ two brothers, Anthony, 10, and Andrew, 6.
Since the news broke, neighbors said they were disturbed — if not frightened — by what happened. Bittersweet Lane, where the Valva/Pollina family lived with his three sons and her three daughters, is a quiet street filled with homes that neighbors said cost upward of $600,000. Many have four or five bedrooms, they said.
Maryann Gaita, 44, a neighbor on Bittersweet Lane, said she didn’t like Pollina from the first.
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Angela Pollina and Michael Valva are led out of Yaphank police headquarters in Yaphank on Friday. Credit: James Carbone
“She rubbed me the wrong way,” Gaita said. “When the school bus would come, she would have her kids run in front of a moving bus.”
She said the couple moved into the neighborhood about 2½ years ago. She considered the entire family “very high strung.” She saw the parents yelling at the kids outside the house for little things, such as wanting them to come in the house.
Anil Arkali, 40, said he had just purchased the house across the street from Valva and planned to move in within a week or so. But his 9-year-old daughter, having seen the news, told him she’s too scared to move in.
“She said, ‘Daddy, let’s sell the house,’” said Arkali, who lives in Shirley.
Now he said he planned to push back the move-in until after the summer — “till it blows over.”
Mother of 8-year-old boy 'heartbroken' over his 'cruel and tragic death'
