A 36-year-old man was stabbed to death by a stranger he told to stop taking pictures of his cousin in a Brooklyn bodega, police and relatives said Wednesday.
Severiano “John” Reyes was hanging out with relatives on Roebling St. near South 9th St. in Williamsburg about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when the killer started snapping pictures, cops said.
As an argument erupted, the photographer pulled out a knife and stabbed Reyes in the neck, according to cops. Two relatives were slashed when they tried to intervene.
“Him and the other friend from the neighborhood were trying to stand up for her, basically saying, ‘Why are you taking pictures? Stop taking pictures!’ And the guy just attacked them,” Reyes’ friend Phil Proszowski told CBS New York. “They just couldn’t save him. There was too much blood.”
Medics rushed Reyes to Bellevue Hospital, where he died.
The attacker ran off and has not been caught.
“My brother was stabbed in an unprovoked attack by someone we don’t know,” Reyes’ sister Yvette Reyes wrote on a GoFundMe post looking for donations to help with funeral costs. “He unfortunately has succumbed to his injuries just hours later after the attack.”
A 45-year-old relative suffered slash wounds to his neck and back and a 27-year-old relative, believed to be the cousin, was slashed on her wrist, cops said. They were taken to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital with minor injuries.
“It’s unreal. I’m not happy, my heart is heavy. I don’t know what to do, what to say, or how to feel anymore right now,” Reyes’ cousin Michael Figueroa told CBS New York. “Not only that he was my cousin, he was my godson. It’s not easy.”
Reyes lived in Bushwick and had four children, according to police and relatives. He just lost his mother in February, his heartbroken sister said.
“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.
