A postal worker was stabbed to death in a fight with a woman over a spot on line at a Harlem deli Thursday — marking at least the third murder in New York City in just the first two days of the new year.
Ray Hodges, an on-duty USPS letter carrier assigned to Manhattan, was knifed multiple times inside the deli at 168 Lenox Ave. around 2:40 p.m., authorities said.
Sources told The Post the knife-wielding suspect went crazy and gutted the victim in the stomach after he stepped in front of her in line, leaving his blood smeared all over the floors and glass door.
Jaia Cruz has been arrested after allegedly stabbing and killing a US postal worker on January 2, 2025, in Harlem. Christopher Sadowski
A postal worker was stabbed and killed inside a deli in Harlem just before 3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. FreedomNewsTV/Ken LopezHodges, 36, was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries, cops said.
His alleged killer, Jaia Cruz, was arrested at the scene and the knife was recovered, according to sources.
Cruz, 24, has been charged with murder.
Cops arrive at the scene of the stabbing. FreedomNewsTV/Ken Lopez“The Postal Inspection Service can confirm that on January 2, 2025, a United States Postal Service letter carrier, assigned to Manhattan, was the victim of a homicide,” a spokesperson for the postal agency The Post.
“USPIS takes matters involving the safety and well-being of post service employees as a top priority. We are working diligently with the New York State Police Department on this investigation.”
Jaia Cruz was walked out of the 28th Precinct after being charged with second-degree murder. Christopher SadowskiDr. Iesha Sekou, founder and CEO of Street Corner Resources, an anti-violence organization, said she spent the afternoon in the hospital comforting the victim’s devastated mother and family.
Sekou said her organization is notified whenever a victim of a violent act, including stabbings, shootings and assaults, arrives at Harlem Hospital — which she claims is happening more and more.
“It’s sad that in the holiday season, you have to look around and watch everybody and see where they have their hands,” Sekou told The Post.
Jaia Cruz was arrested at the scene and the knife was recovered. Christopher Sadowski“The energy is so flat and so fearful. We have to become a bigger and stronger and better city.”
On Wednesday, in the first homicide of the year, a 50-year-old man was found slashed in the neck around 4:20 a.m. at the corner of West 137th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem, cops said.
He was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The second slaying came about an hour later when Mario Fowler, 46, was shot dead in front of an apartment building on East 170th Street near Clay Avenue in the Claremont Village section of the Bronx.
Fowler, who was blasted in both legs, was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries, cops said.
Additional reporting by Joe Marino and Larry Celona
