The suspect who allegedly beat a man to death at the Jay Street-MetroTech subway station has been charged with murder and is due to appear in court on Thursday.
Cops said 25-year-old David Mazariegos was arrested in Times Square on Tuesday night after nearby officers recognized him from a photo distributed by the NYPD. He was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, records show, on charges of criminal possession of a weapon and identity theft. Mazariegos pleaded not guilty and was released but immediately re-arrested to face additional charges in Brooklyn.
Officers marched Mazariegos out of the 84th Precinct in Downtown Brooklyn in handcuffs late Wednesday night. He was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Thursday on charges of murder, robbery, and criminal possession of stolen property. He pleaded not guilty, court records show, and was ordered to be held without bail after the hearing.
The man allegedly brutally attacked 64-year-old Bensonhurst resident Nicola Tanzi at the Jay Street-MetroTech station on Oct. 7.
According to the criminal complaint, video surveillance footage showed that Mazariegos punched Tanzi in the face, kicked him repeatedly in the face, and stomped on his head at least ten times. Mazariegos allegedly also told a detective from the 84th Precinct that he had attacked Tanzi and stolen his wallet. He then fled the scene, eventually boarding a Bronx-bound 2 train at the nearby Hoyt Street station.
The attack left Tanzi unconscious and unresponsive “with trauma about the body,” per the NYPD. He was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he died shortly after the attack. According to the criminal complaint, Tanzi had sustained a skull fracture, a crushed nasal bone, and a bruised hip.
Mazariegos later used Tanzi’s credit card to buy a sword, socks, a hat and herbs, per the criminal complaint. He was allegedly in possession of a sword when officers found him in Manhattan on Tuesday night.
The pair did not appear to know each other, and the exact cause of the altercation is not known. According to the Daily News, Mazariegos “didn’t like the way [Tanzi] looked at him” as Tanzi held a gate open for him inside the station. Mazariegos has been arrested several times this year, court records show, and was charged with assault and aggravated harassment in a case in Manhattan this summer.
According to Gothamist, Tanzi was a security guard who was active in the local Catholic community.
Including Tanzi, four people have been murdered in New York City subways this year. Citywide, transit crime is down 4.3%, according to the latest police statistics, and the subway system just marked its safest quarter in recorded history, per the NYPD. Murder is also down more than 17% across the city.
But in Brooklyn, transit crime is up 2.3% year-to-date, with 393 incidents reported as of Oct. 5. In August, a man was slashed onboard an A train at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn streets station after he accidentally bumped another passenger, and an MTA worker was stabbed inside a subway tunnel in Crown Heights after he confronted a trespasser on Sept. 29.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with additional information.
Update 10/9/2025, 4:43 p.m.: This story has been updated with additional information from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.
