The 16-year-old killer accused of fatally stabbing a young man in the heart of Dyker Beach Park in Brooklyn made an impromptu confession to an off-duty cop just 45 minutes later, prosecutors said Monday.
“Listen,” the teen allegedly said, “I just stabbed somebody. But don’t snitch on me.”
The admission was revealed at the teen suspect’s arraignment on murder charges Monday in the death of Manuel Estanislao Chox Choc, 21, inside Dyker Beach Park in Dyker Heights Saturday. The teen is also charged with attempted murder, accused of stabbing Chox Choc’s 30-year-old uncle.
The Daily News is withholding the teen’s name because of his age.
The 16-year-old and a second suspect rode a moped into the park, near 86th St. and 14th Ave., just before 2 p.m., Assistant D.A. Daniel Stern said at the teen’s arraignment in Brooklyn Supreme Court’s youth part Monday. “This was a very busy park. There were soccer games going on, and other people playing in the park,” Stern said.
The teen approached a group in the park, apparently targeting one of them. He then confronted him, recording the confrontation on his cell phone. He asked the victim if he was in a gang, a law enforcement source said Monday.
The teen then stabbed Chox Choc in the heart, and “he essentially died right there in the park,” Stern said.
When Chox Choc’s uncle tried to intervene, the teen stabbed him in the heart as well, the prosecutor said. The uncle, who was critically hurt, has been upgraded to stable condition, Stern said.
About 45 minutes later, an off-duty police officer spotted the teen riding the moped on the Belt Parkway, then trying to get rid of it on the highway, Stern said. The cop asked if the teen needed help, and he blurted out, “Listen, I just stabbed somebody, but don’t snitch on me,” so the cop took him into custody, the prosecutor said.
Judge Curtis Walker ordered the teen held without bail until his next appearance Thursday. His lawyer, Peter Saint George Davis, declined comment Monday.
Chox Choc, who came to the U.S. from Guatemala four years ago, was set to graduate high school in just a few days, family friends said.
“He was a really nice person. He would always smile. Like anytime when we said hi, he would be like always happy all the time,” a 13-year-old friend said as her mom looked on. “He didn’t know really English. He would always like try to learn because he was born in Guatemala, so he was trying to learn the language that would help him and would help him help his parents. He would always say that it was hard for him, the language, but I would help him.”
She said he came to the U.S. for a better life, and to send money back to his parents in Guatemala.
“Everyone is really hurt, because we couldn’t believe it,” she said.