A 52-year-old man died after he was punched in the face during a heated argument at a Brooklyn street corner just a few steps from his home, police said Friday.
Kemal Karakatal was near the corner of Pitkin and Van Siclen Aves. in East New York — near the Van Siclen Ave. subway stop and NYCHA’s Florentino Plaza — at about 8:20 p.m. Thursday when a man in a white T-shirt and shorts confronted him, cops said.
Karakatal got into some kind of an argument with the man before the pair came to blows, cops said.
During the assault, the suspect punched Karakatal in the face, sending him reeling back onto the concrete sidewalk. EMS rushed him to Brookdale University Hospital, where he died of his injuries.
His death is being investigated as a homicide, cops said.
Karakatal lived in Florentino Plaza, about a half block from where he was punched. It wasn’t immediately clear what the two men were arguing about.
The man in the white shirt and shorts, who was also wearing white socks and black crocs, stormed off.
No arrests have been made.
Cops were searching for surveillance footage that can help them track the assailant’s movements after the attack.
The killing comes as the NYPD announced a 9% drop in crime in city housing projects. By the end of June, cops investigated 2,659 crimes, 246 fewer crimes than the first six months of 2025.