Franklin Mesa, a 19-year-old schizophrenic, was arrested on suspicion of committing a savage homicide: randomly stabbing a man to death in front of his wife in broad daylight, on a street in the Bronx (NYC).
Nathaniel Rivers, 35, was parked with his wife at E. 205th St. and Decatur Ave., norwood neighborhood, when table started stabbing him out the car window at 1:15 p.m. Thursday, according to the NYPD.
Desperate, Rivers got out of his car to defend himself and his wife grabbed a crowbar and began beating to no avail at the emotionally distraught assailant who was randomly stabbing him and then fled. Doctors took Rivers to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died. Miraculously, his wife was not injured..
Mesa and Rivers knew each other in the neighborhood, but it’s not clear what sparked the attack. The police believe that he was not provoked, as there was no history of an altercation between them.
“It was out of the blue,” now-widowed Sahyeedah Belis, 44, said of the fatal attack. “We were sitting in our car. We had to wait for alternate side parking. We had gotten food.” Suddenly, according to her, Rivers said to her: “What do you want?” someone, and Belis looked up to see a person in a balaclava.
“My husband takes off his balaclava and … this kid just sticks a knife in him” in the kitchen, Belis said. Despite the death of her husband, she added that he is grateful to one police officer in particular who joined her to perform CPR when he arrived on the scene and never gave up.
Mesa, who lived down the block from the scene, was arrested a short time later. and charged with involuntary manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. Police and relatives described him as schizophrenic. He has a previous arrest from last year, for hitting someone twice in the face, he said. New York Post.
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