Posted on 05/22/2010 6:01:19 AM PDT by Pharmboy
A 19-year-old Brooklyn man who fatally stabbed two men during a fight in the subway in March will be released from jail...
The man, Brenddy Garcia, [said] was acting in self-defense when he pulled out a four-inch folding knife and began swinging at a group of men who jumped him on a southbound No. 2 train in Manhattan early one morning...
Among those who attacked Mr. Garcia were Darnell Morel and Ricardo Williams, who died from their stab wounds...
Mr. Garcia and several friends were on their way home from a baby shower in the Bronx, where they drank alcohol — but they were not drunk, Mr. Fredella said.
Mr. Williams and Mr. Morel were at a bar...their group made a brief detour into a drugstore...witnesses said and surveillance videos showed, some of them tried to steal beer, prosecutors said in a news release on Friday. Mr. Williams kicked over a store display and jumped on a counter, prosecutors said...
... Williams and Mr. Morel drank beer and were loud and raucous on the train...they harassed a man who appeared to be homeless and a woman, prosecutors said.
At one point, Mr. Williams kicked a drugstore bag at Mr. Garcia...
One of those friends hit Mr. Garcia over the head with a bottle, prosecutors said. Mr. Garcia fell to the ground, and the group pounced on him, prosecutors said.
“As he tried to escape, unable to move freely in any direction, Mr. Garcia believed that he was about to be killed,” Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, said in a statement.
That was when Mr. Garcia began swinging his knife, killing Mr. Williams and Mr. Morel and injuring one of their friends. Mr. Garcia and his friends got off at the Christopher Street stop and fled, prosecutors said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Thanks for posting. The word is that he’s a good kid with no record. Further, it was reported that none of his friends have a record either...
He Never should have been thrown in jail in the first place, but at least there was a good ending.
Bernie made a mistake when he came off the train. He should have been crying and acting hysterically. Not the cold calculating way he came off.
I remember when I was a kid watching Death Wish with my dad. He tried to explain to me (beyond the illegal gun) why what Charles Bronson was doing was illegal (using himself as bait and then setting the hook so to speak). I did not understand it then, and still do not understand it now. If you are attacked in a public place, you have the right to defend yourself.
I think a a remake of Death Wish with lots of black and Latino villians would do really well in the box office today.
...As if some Gub-mint bureaucrat watching a video monitor could have saved Mr. Garcia's life?
Well, the other possibility is that if the subway car had been under surveillance, Mr. Garcia might not have had to spend any time in jail awaiting his grand jury appearance as the DA would have seen what had transpired.
So why was he held in Rikers Island for two months?
After a few days investigation he should have been released to wait for the decision of the Grand jury.
Good question...I would guess that since he did not turn himslf in, that worked against him. thefactor is NYPD, so perhaps he can answer.
BTTT
vaudine
The hood with the eyes squinted says, I'm Bad!
If NY is anything like Mich, it can still be pretty darn cold in March.......My guess is that the kid doesn't have a nice warm winter jacket.
Nope...I think all the perps were born here as was Garcia. Remember—NYC has 600,000 Dominicans alone (and they are a distant second in number to Puerto Ricans). While there are undoubtedly illegals in NYC, the overwhelming number of Latinos are legal...
Don’t give bloomberg any ideas.
I think that was taken when he was arrested and may not have wanted to be easily seen.
Carrying a knife with a 4 inch or longer blade in any form is illegal. You can get a criminal court summonse for it. A gravity knife or a switchblade counts as a deadly weapon and that is an arrestable offense.
Well, it was a 2nd degree murder charge. Either he didn’t get bail or he couldn’t post the bail that was offered.
It looks like 4” is legal in NYC.
http://www.donath.org/Rants/StateKnifeLaws/
Here in California, any concealed knife is illegal. That is why we all have knives that clip outside your pocket (knife in your pocket, clip outside your pocket). The clip is not concealed and therefore it is “open carry”.
It was not bravery but desperation. He was already under attack by several opponents. When that happens, some people surrender and some people fight. He fought and had a good weapon with which to fight. But it was not bravery, it was automatic, like you jumping from the path of an oncoming car.
I too am glad they never got his knife, but at least he had the element of surprise. A lot of punks are cowards who attack in groups on single weak opponents. I am sure they were shocked and baffled to feel pain and see blood pouring out. I will bet it confused them and left them open to easy attack. “Hey, I’m bleeding! I’m cut! Where did that come from.”
Good for the “victim”. Glad to see he had the means to defend himself.
And I would guess he wasn’t thinking strategically, just reacting automatically. I seriously doubt he was thinking through the implications of each thrust of the knife. My bet is he was thinking...
“Being attacked. Must defend. Being attacked. Must defend. Being attacked. Must defend.”
I highly doubt his thought process went beyond that. I have no clue if he has martial knife training. If so, then he fell back on his training. If not, then the above is all he could handle.
Exactly. This guy had the guts to fight back.
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