A father of four was stabbed to death by a deranged childhood classmate over a long-festering grudge, with the killer snapping photos of his victim before the slaying inside a Brooklyn bodega, police and family members said Wednesday.
Severiano “John” Reyes, 36 was hanging out with relatives on Roebling St. near South 9th St. in Williamsburg about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when the old schoolmate began antagonizing him by taking his picture, according to relatives.
The dispute exploded in a lethal instant after Reyes asked the man to stop, with the attacker plunging his blade into the fleeing victim’s neck before bolting from the scene.
“This man came up to my brother two weeks ago,” the victim’s grieving sister Yvette Reyes, 30, told the Daily News. “He said, ‘You took something from me when we were children.’ This is premeditated murder.”
The killer and the victim were classmates in a special education class more than two decades ago, she said, with the suspect confronting him over the bizarre vendetta two weeks before the killing. Reyes said the snapshots were intended to goad her older sibling.
Reyes was pronounced dead from his wounds at Bellevue Hospital.
“I never thought I’d be the girl that would have to bury my kids’ father,” said the dead man’s longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Cintron, 32. “He was just visiting family. He went to see his sister. It was a regular thing, just stopping by to see how she is.”
Two other victims, including a female cousin, were slashed before the assailant disappeared, with relative Maryann Feliciano bashing the attacker with a baseball bat in a desperate effort to save Reyes.
“The two of them were fighting and (the cousin) was getting into it,” said an eyewitness, speaking to The News on condition of anonymity. “He pulled out a knife and stabbed (Reyes) in the neck. He was gushing blood.”
A 45-year-old man suffered slash wounds to his neck and back and cousin Desiree Feliciano, 27, was slashed on the wrist, cops said. Both were taken to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital with minor injuries.
The victim’s cousin William Soberal, 43, described the fugitive killer as a “skateboard punk” and neighborhood resident who chased Reyes down before savagely stabbing the unarmed man.
“When (Reyes) got to the store the guy did the death blow,” he said. “They were fighting but he was running after them, stabbing him.”
Phil Proszowski, a friend of Reyes for more than two decades, said the assailant began taking the photos after the two men became involved in a dispute.
“They already had some type of exchange,” he said. “The perp wanted to hurt John prior to that (stabbing). He was taking pictures to try and provoke him.”
Cintron, the victim’s girlfriend of nine years, said the dead man was father to a 1-year-old daughter and a 6-year-old son with her, along with a 13-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son from a prior relationship.
“He loved all of his kids,” she said. “He loved being a father. His sister called me and she told me he got stabbed in the neck ... I was in shock. I was like, ‘Please God, just let him make it through.’”
Reyes lived in Bushwick but grew up in the neighborhood where he was killed, according to relatives. He just lost his mother in February, said his heartbroken sister Yvette Reyes in a GoFundMe post to raise funeral expenses.
“We weren’t prepared for such a traumatic tragedy to happen this soon,” the sister wrote. “My brother was such a good person.”
Reyes had five arrests on his record, for robbery and drugs, and had served two short prison sentences, according to cops and public records. His last prison stint ended when he was conditionally released in January 2019. He worked odd jobs as a carpenter and electrician since then.
“People change their lives,” said his sister Yvette. “He always took care of his family ... He was a good person. The past is the past.”
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(With Kerry Burke)
