A homeless shelter worker was fatally stabbed by a masked suspect outside of the facility where he worked in Brooklyn on Thursday night, according to police sources.
The employee, 35, was knifed near a Days Inn hotel-turned-shelter on East New York Avenue in Brownsville around 6:20 p.m. and then ran back inside the building for help, cops and the sources said.
A homeless shelter worker was stabbed to death Thursday in Brooklyn. LP MediaThe man suffered stab wounds to his neck and abdomen and was bleeding out in the lobby before medics arrived, according to the NYPD and sources.
He was taken to Brookdale Medical Center but could not be saved.
No arrest has been made, but police are seeking a male suspect who was dressed in all black and was wearing a ski mask and baseball cap, authorities said.
The victim was taken to Brookdale Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead. LP Media
Locals said the Days Inn hotel houses men. LP MediaThe victim worked for a nonprofit that partners with the Department of Homeless Services and the shelter is not run by the city agency, according to police and a DHS spokesperson.
An elderly man who lives at the shelter said the victim “didn’t have any problems. He kept to himself.”
“He was a good man. I just spoke to him yesterday,” said Pedro, who did not want to give his last name.
“He was a young guy, yeah, he was helping people get apartments. He was trying to help me get an apartment. He was a real good man. Makes no sense. It makes no sense to me.”
Three women working at the shelter declined comment on Thursday night.
Cops said the man suffered stab wounds in the neck area and went back inside the building for help. LP MediaIt was not immediately known if the shelter houses single adults or families.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeless Services called the killing “an absolutely horrific tragedy,” noting the city’s “non-for-profit providers’ frontline staff step up every day to support vulnerable New Yorkers.”
Locals who work and live in the area were not surprised by the violence.
When medics arrived at the scene, he was bleeding out in the lobby. LP MediaA man, who is in his 40s, said another person was stabbed to death in the area recently.
“It’s crazy,” said the man, who works down the street from the shelter. “I’m gonna move down south.”
Another man who lives in a nearby homeless shelter said where he is staying is supposed to have on-site security.
No arrests have been made yet as the NYPD said that they don’t have any information on the victim’s attacker. LP Media“But the security is bullshi-t,” Camar Oliver, 46, said. “You can get in with anything.”
Ahmed, who works at a nearby convenience store, believes the shelter has been open since around the COVID pandemic.
“They turned all the hotels around here into shelters during COVID,” he said. “There are four or five more around here. A lot of stabbings. A lot of trouble.”
