By Howard Koplowitz and Stephen Stirling
College Point residents downplayed news reports that neighbors of a woman stabbed to death early Saturday morning ignored her cries for help as she lay bleeding outside her building on 121st Street.
Police said 21-year-old Ebony Garcia was pronounced dead at New York Hospital Queens early Saturday morning after being stabbed several times.
Her boyfriend, 25-year-old Segundo Penafiel of 111-05 Roosevelt Ave. in Corona, was in the custody of U.S. marshals Tuesday afternoon after being arrested while riding a bus in Brownsville, Texas near the Mexican border following a joint investigation involving the NYPD, the U.S. border patrol and marshals, police said.
Multiple news reports following the incident quoted an unnamed resident who said she heard Garcia repeatedly crying for help after staggering out of her home, but they thought she was drunk and ignored it. Following the reports, several College Point residents defended their community, throwing water on the idea that anyone who heard Garcia ignored her.
“A lot of people say a lot of things,” said College Point Civic Association member Michael Tkach. “I would take something like that with a grain of salt.”
Garcia was killed after there was allegedly a dispute inside her home at 3-02 121st St. around 2 a.m. Saturday, police said.
When cops arrived on the scene, they found Garcia with multiple stab wounds to her torso. The police report did not specify where Garcia was found.
But one neighbor said she had seen blood on the sidewalk.
Garcia was taken to New York Hospital Queens, where she was pronounced dead around 3:52 a.m. Saturday, police said.
A 109th Precinct officer who stood by the crime scene Saturday would not give any other details.
One of Garcia's neighbors said he noticed Garcia and another woman standing by a double-parked car outside the home when he got back to his house around 12:30 a.m. Saturday after a night out.
But he said he did not see anything unusual.
“They were outside, just normal, just talking,” said the neighbor, Manny Tressandy.
He said Garcia rarely socialized with anyone on the quiet block near MacNeill Park and he never noticed any problems between the couple.
“We've never seen any domestic violence,” Tressandy said.
A neighbor across the street from Garcia's corner house said she was sleeping during the incident and was not awakened. She first noticed crime scene tape when she looked out her window Saturday morning.
“It really surprised me,” said the neighbor, who did not want to give her name. “Nothing really happens here in that magnitude. I'm really shocked.”
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 173.
