A 71-year-old man was found dead in his Upper Manhattan apartment early Wednesday, and a woman who lived with him is being questioned by authorities, cops said.
Police responded around 2:30 a.m. to a 911 call from the apartment on Seaman Avenue near West 207th Street in Inwood. They found the senior unconscious and unresponsive on the floor, lying on his side, with cuts all over his body, police said.
A 27-year-old woman was taken into custody for questioning, cops said. Authorities found her fleeing down a fire escape as they responded, according to police sources.
Her relationship with the man was not immediately clear.
They lived in the apartment together, along with another person, according to police sources.
The man has not been publicly identified pending family notification.
A female neighbor who declined to give her name called the victim a “gentle soul” who had grandchildren, and said she didn’t believe he had any enemies. He ran a communal email chain and was always emailing members of the building, according to the neighbor.
“I don’t know what could have happened,” she said.
Police found the man unconscious and unresponsive on the floor, lying on his side, with cuts all over his body, they said. Christopher SadowskiA 44-year-old neighbor who only gave his first name, Alex, called him a “sweet, nice guy.”
“He said hello to people when he saw them,” he said. “I feel awful. How can something like this happen to you in your own home?”
“He was a Democrat,” Alex added. “He was always going around knocking on people’s door asking, ‘Are you a Democrat?’ ‘Are you registered to vote?’ He wanted to make sure people were registered to vote.”
Alex, who has lived in the building for almost 20 years, described it as “safe” and said “this has never happened before.”
Other neighbors said the elderly man lived with his son and his son’s girlfriend — and that the relationship between the trio was contentious.
“We all live in the buildings. We hear things. We see the police cars,” said resident Sherry, 73.
She added that “the police have been called to his apartment” in the past.
“I have heard they have had domestic scuffles,” she said.
The city medical examiner’s office will determine the man’s cause of death.
