Photo by Síle Moloney
The NYPD has opened a homicide investigation following the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old man in Norwood.
Police said that on Friday, July 28, at around 5.32 p.m., officers responded to a 911 call regarding an assault in progress inside 365 East 204th Street, a multi-story, residential building.
“Upon arrival, officers observed a 21-year-old male with multiple stab wounds about the body,” police said. “The victim was transported by EMS to St. Barnabas Hospital where he was pronounced deceased. There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing,” police added.
Police said that on Friday, July 28, at around 5.32 p.m., officers responded to a 911 call regarding an assault in progress inside 365 East 204th Street, a multi-story, residential building.
“Upon arrival, officers observed a 21-year-old male with multiple stab wounds about the body,” police said. “The victim was transported by EMS to St. Barnabas Hospital where he was pronounced deceased. There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing,” police added.
The deceased was later identified as Carlos Borbon of East 204th Street in Norwood.
Photo by Síle Moloney
Outside the building, we spoke to one young woman who was very upset, was surrounded by a group of residents of the building who later filed in once the police tape was removed, and who, we understand, is either related to or at least knew the victim. Speaking in Spanish, she said, “I wasn’t here when it happened.” Gesturing to a young man next to her who appeared traumatized, she added, “He was here.” She then said of the victim, “He was stabbed four times. ” The young woman then broke down in tears and added, “I can’t talk.”
Also speaking in Spanish, a middle-aged man from the local area who declined to be identified, told Norwood News he had heard from people commenting on the incident that the deceased young man had arrived home to his building, already stabbed, and had gone upstairs. Asked if he knew where the stabbing had occurred, the man said he understood possibly at a nearby park but did not know for sure.
Another person, who also declined to be identified, said he had heard from neighbors that the stabbing took place in a corridor of the building where the young man lived. Later on Friday night, we asked the NYPD if they could confirm either account. An NYPD spokesperson replied, saying, “As it stands right now, that aspect, that element is still under investigation: was he stabbed outside on his way in, or was he stabbed inside the building? Initially, we had those reports of him being stabbed in the building so that’s still part of the active and ongoing investigation.”
When we asked the NYPD if they could confirm if the man lived alone or with other people, the spokesperson said, “I don’t have that at this point in time.” There was no apparent sign of blood drops on the street or stoop of the building.
Photo by Síle Moloney
When asked if he had any comments about the incident, another middle-aged, male resident of the area, who also declined to be identified, said there was always ongoing negative activity. When asked for more information on such activity, the resident said, “Drug activities, people just loitering around the stoop [store?], just hanging out. Why you got to hang out in front of the store? I just moved to New York. So, in Philadelphia, you’re not allowed to loiter so that must be a New York thing.”
Asked how he knew of the alleged drug activity, the resident replied, “I seen ’em pass drugs back and forth.” Asked if he meant sharing needles, the man replied, “No, no, no, marijuana….crack. So… something needs to be done. It’s too much, and it always comes down to somebody getting killed for ’em to do somethin’. Should have done somethin’, should have prepared.. Stop letting people hang out drinking and stuff like that. It’s too much.”
We spoke to another male employee in the local area, whose name we are not disclosing, who said he knew the young man who had died. He said of the deceased, “Yeah, the kid is a good kid. He don’t bother nobody. He’s a cool kid…. That’s my boy. I know him. His father is my best friend. But him, he don’t talk to nobody… like every time he come to the building, he say hi to everybody, he go upstairs, he having to go to work, he goes downstairs, he leaves, says hi, he go.”
Photo by Síle Moloney
The employee added that the victim never really hung out in the area. “He don’t be chillin’ here like outside or [inaudible]. Just, ‘Hi, how’re you doin’?’ That’s it. He called me by ‘My cool man, my best friend,'” the employee added. He said he talked to the deceased man’s sister who was the one who told him her brother had died. “She cried and hugged me. I’m still in shock,” he said.
Asked if he knew anything about the circumstances of the stabbing, the employee said, “No. I just came in. I see this one [building] closed [cordoned off]. I said, ‘What happened?’ They tell me the guy upstairs… I would think his little brother… and after it came out the bigger brother, I was like, I can’t believe this. I don’t know.”
The employee said he bought a second-hand car last year from the deceased man’s father. “Me and him…like cool,” he said. Asked if the young man had lived alone or with others, the employee said he lived with others. The man added, in reference to the deceased, “He’s not a crazy… respect. He don’t have no mental problems.. nothing. He’s a cool dude. He respect. Never see him arguing with nobody on the street and when you see him, you say, ‘Hi, how’re you doin’?’ That’s it.” Asked if he knew where the young man worked, he said he did not.
We asked the employee if he had ever seen or heard of any trouble in the building. He said, “Sometimes, yeah.” We mentioned a drive-by shooting that had occurred just outside the building on the corner of East 204th and Decatur in September 2022. The man said, “Yeah, one guy. He was living in this building [365 East 204th Street] but he left. He shoot two people. He came, he shoot everybody and he left.”
Photo by Síle Moloney
Of the atmosphere in the local area, the employee added, “We have two security here. At night-time….a lot of stuff…a lot of crackheads on the block here… people….. they don’t respect. A lot of them, they be sleepin’ on the floor. Now, they go next door to the Check Cashing. They be sleepin’… daytime, night-time. They don’t have patience. They make problems. They go, ‘hi.’ They cuss you up. They probably wanna steal. They talk [s**t]. A lot of things.. it’s The Bronx, New York.”
Another local employee, who declined to be identified, told us he just knew that the deceased lived in the building. Asked if he was a nice person, the man said, “Yeah, a really nice guy,” and added that the deceased man’s father was a mechanic and “a real nice guy.” Asked if his son was also a mechanic, the man said, “That, I don’t know.”
The second employee said he wasn’t around when the stabbing happened as he had been working at another location. He said he heard that before the ambulance was called, the victim had arrived home and had gone upstairs. “All I see is the cop going in,” he said. Asked if he knew of any trouble in the neighborhood, the man said there was always homelessness.
He added that there was no trouble in the building to his knowledge. “The building is nice,” he said. We mentioned the prior shooting last September on the street outside, and the man recalled it, saying, “Yeah, but right now, everything is good. Me, I have no problem anyway. It’s not a bad neighborhood.”
Photo by Síle Moloney
We also spoke to a middle-aged, female resident of the impacted building, who has lived there for 17 years and who declined to be identified. When asked if she had experienced any trouble in the building, speaking in Spanish, she replied, “No, never any problems. Always quiet.” We mentioned the shooting in September 2022 outside the building. The woman said, “Yes, but on the street, not inside.”
The resident added that she had received a text from a relative saying something had happened and that the building had been cordoned off. Though it was still humid on Friday evening at around 8.30 p.m., she, and another elderly woman who was with her, stood patiently on the street, waiting to go back inside their home for an hour or two while police and NYPD detectives completed their investigation.
Also speaking in Spanish, another woman who was doing laundry in an adjacent laundromat who also declined to be identified, said of the local area, “Here, there are always people…..I don’t know how to say…. you don’t know if people are good people or bad people because they’re people that don’t work,” she said. “You always have to be careful because you just don’t know.”
In the meantime, an employee at a local barber shop located on Decatur Avenue and E 204th Street told Norwood News they saw the injured victim on Friday passing by the shop, located opposite the victim’s home, and asked him if he needed help. They said he declined and carried on walking towards his building which they said he then entered.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.
All calls are strictly confidential.
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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.
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