Alleged Killer of Dentist Is Relative of Former Wife

A suspect has been arrested in connection with the murder of a Columbia University-trained dentist who was shot execution-style in front of his 4-year-old daughter last month at a playground in Queens, police officials said.

Mikhail Mallayev, 50, a family relation of the victim's ex-wife, was arrested on Saturday at his home in Chamblee, Ga., in the shooting of Daniel Malakov on the morning of October 28 in the Forest Hill section of Queens.

Investigators were able to connect Mr. Mallayev to the crime by matching fingerprints found on a homemade silencer used in the shooting to fingerprints that police obtained in 1994, when the suspect was arrested for illegally escorting another individual through a turnstile at the Rockefeller Center subway station, police said.

Mr. Mallayev, whose fingerprints were the last set examined by forensic detectives in the list of 23 individuals, became a suspect in the murder on Friday after he was matched to one of the prints. Mr. Mallayev was awaiting extradition to Queens from Georgia yesterday, officials said. He will be charged with murder in the second degree and possession of a weapon in the second degree, according to the complaint filed in Queens County Criminal Court.