Anicasio Rivera, 76, was found at 4:07 a.m. at the corner of 64th Street and 39th Avenue with numerous stab wounds…
By Dustin Brown
An elderly Woodside man died before dawn last Thursday after being stabbed repeatedly on a street within a block of his home, police said.
Anicasio Rivera, 76, was found at 4:07 a.m. at the corner of 64th Street and 39th Avenue with numerous stab wounds about the chest, abdomen, neck and extremities, police said.
He was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 4:54 a.m., said Ellen Borakov, spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner’s office.
Police were searching for two male Hispanics in connection with the crime. Rivera was not immediately identified because no information about him was found with his body
Rivera, who lived at 37-15 64th St. in Woodside, was born in Puerto Rico, according to an employee at Rivera Funeral Home in Corona, where his viewing was held.
He is survived by one son, who also lives in Queens.
Rivera was to be buried Wednesday morning at Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens.
The corner where Rivera was found is a block north of Roosevelt Avenue, where busy storefronts and sidewalks crowded with pedestrian traffic lie in the shadow of the elevated No. 7 train.
But the intersection of 64th Street and 39th Avenue sits on the cusp between the commercial district and surrounding residential streets. A grocery store and botanicals shop occupy the southern street corners, across the street from two large apartment buildings.
Neighbors walking the streets last Thursday were saddened by the murder, but some took it as a sign of a trend.
“This neighborhood is going down the drain,” said Oswald Salcedo, 60, as he walked his dog near the scene of the stabbing early Thursday afternoon. “It’s a shame.”
The only lingering signs of the crime later that day were a few stray strands of police tape tied around sign posts and littering the sidewalk as well as a small group of reporters and television crews posted at the scene.
Many residents said drunk individuals loitering in the neighborhood have been a source of problems in recent years. Some pointed to a bar one block from the crime scene as a frequent cause of fights and disturbances.
But the murder still came as a shock.
“The neighborhood is not that bad to have things like that happen,” said a resident of a nearby co-op. “I’ve been in this house 15 years — it’s the first time something happened like that.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
