It took nearly five months, and almost two weeks following a brutal stabbing in Norwood late last month, but the 52nd Precinct has its first murder of 2012.

The stabbing victim, Jorge Arango, 20, who his mother described as the “center” of his family, was on life support after being sliced and stabbed multiple times during an altercation on May 17 that was caught on video surveillance. After doctors declared Arango brain dead, his family took him off life support on May 31.

Police arrested two individuals, Ramon Sanchez, 24, and Luis Davis, 28, and charged them with the stabbing of Arango on East Gun Hill Road at Jerome Avenue. The suspects were originally charged with assault in the first degree, but those charges are expected to be upgraded to murder. (Two weeks after he died, charges have yet to be upgraded.)

Video from a security camera installed by the Jerome-Gun Hill Business Improvement that sits above Caribe Restaurant recorded much of the incident. The video was eventually given to detectives and provided as evidence to a grand jury.

Just before midnight, Arango, 20, a Norwood resident who lived on East Gun Hill Road, appears on camera standing in the Jerome Avenue crosswalk. After taking off his over shirt, Arango raises his hands and appears to yell at another man on the other side of the crosswalk. The man runs toward Arango, launches himself into the 20-year-old and the two begin fighting. That’s when another man, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, joins the fray and becomes entangled with Arango. While those two are tussling, the other man produces a knife and starts stabbing Arango all over his body.

Later, the victim gets up, soaking with blood, and unsuccessfully tries to hail a cab. The camera drifts away. The next time it rolls past, Arango is gone.

Officers discovered Arango with multiple stab wounds, as many as 15, on his chest, arms and legs. He was transported to Jacobi Hospital in extremely critical condition.

Arango remained alive for two weeks before being removed from life support. The murder is the first of 2012 in the 52nd Precinct, which includes the Norwood News’ primary coverage area: the neighborhoods of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights.

How the altercation began is in dispute. Police, Arango’s mother and one of the suspect’s sister all say Arango and the two suspects had met at least a month earlier, but the rest of the story is murky.

In an interview, Arango’s mother, Jeanette Febles, 55, recalled the fateful night when her son would get into a violent altercation outside of Caribe, a local restaurant where she and her son would often have dinner after attending mass at St. Ann’s Church on Bainbridge Avenue..

“He was with a friend of his [that night], they came to my house and he said, ‘Mom, give me some money and I’ll be right back,’ and he had met with these people a month ago.” After being pressed, she gave him the money.
She says her son was antagonized and then attacked later that night.

Febles says that Arango attended PS 94, but didn’t make it to high school due to a severe case of asthma. Later, he would get a high school equivalency diploma and became a home health aide.

Febles said Arango went to care for an elderly retired doctor in upper Manhattan.  “Unfortunately the patient died and he was very affected by this,” she said. “This was last year. The man left him some money, so he went to France, he visited Europe.”

She continued, “When he came back, he says, ‘Mom, I can’t be a home health attendant anymore.’ He can’t deal with the fact that the patients die. He got used to seeing the man every day and enjoyed helping him.”

On the day Arango died, Febles said her son had a job interview in Yonkers.

Febles says her son was the “center” of the family. “He liked to party and get into every person’s situation. He wanted to know what a person was doing or what they could do together.”

Family members will miss the young man’s casual singing in the apartment and his sketches. Arango loved to draw.

Febles is now attempting to raise money to give her son a proper funeral and burial.

Editor’s note: A version of this story appears in the June 14-27 print edition of the Norwood News.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.