A man lost his life after a grisly stabbing in an unfinished Williamsburg condo building on Tuesday morning, investigators say.
Firefighters responded to a call at 8:30 am and found an unresponsive Hispanic man in his mid-30s with a stab wound to his neck on the second story of the construction site at Bedford Avenue and S. Fourth Street.
The man was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, according to police.
While investigators would not release the victim’s name, friends in the neighborhood said the man, who was from Honduras, went by the nicknames of “Harley” or “Nini” and was a day laborer who frequently squatted in the building.
“He came in here all the time,” said Juan Rodriguez, who runs the Los Sures Deli across the street. “He was a nice guy. He kept to himself. He never stole anything.”
Harley was one of many men who would stand under the Williamsburg Bridge overpass in the mornings and wait to get picked up for jobs, said Rafael Duran.
“I never knew him by name, but I saw him here all the time,” Duran said.
Neighbors wondered how something like this could happen in a community that has seen far less crime in recent years, but they all agreed that the seemingly abandoned condo project invites trouble.
Williamsburger Carrington Morris said work began on the building in the late aughts, but quickly came to a halt.
“When the economy crashed, all the bulldozers were up, and they were suddenly just frozen like dinosaurs,” she said. “It’s been sitting here like this ever since.”