On a western Jamaica block Good Samaritan Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax fell to the sidewalk mortally wounded recently – only to be ignored by a score of passers-by.
“There isn’t much trouble around here, except for drunks – there’s a lot of them,” said Juan, from behind the counter of the mini-mart a block from the intersection of 88th Road and 144th Street, where the 31-year-old Guatemalan native met his end in the dawning hours of Sunday, April 18.
“You see drunks laying down all the time. I bet people just thought he was sleeping,” Juan speculated, as his father nodded in agreement. They agreed that in the mostly Central American neighborhood, people were more worried about getting to work – and not going homeless themselves.
“It’s mostly from Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador,” the storekeepers said, noting that many have a deep reluctance to be involved with police, and rarely pay attention to anything not on their doorstep.
The crime scene is at the center of a patchwork of short blocks with intersections that don’t quite line up, bordered by Hillside and Jamaica Avenues and Queens and Sutphin Boulevards.
But under the scaffolding in front of 88-15 144th Street – where cops say Tale-Yax went to the aid of an unknown woman being threatened by a man with a knife. A 9-1-1 caller reported a woman screaming just minutes after the stabbing and another caller reported a man on the sidewalk but gave the cops the wrong location.
So Tale-Yax lay where he fell for almost two hours, until someone moved him enough to see his blood on the sidewalk. Police arrived shortly thereafter, as did the EMS personnel who declared him dead.
Authorities hope the mystery woman will come forward to help provide some justice for the man who may have saved her life, while the family and Guatemalan officials provide for his final repatriation.
Cops are asking anyone with information about this homicide to call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477), log onto the Crime Stoppers web site at www.NYPDCrimeStoppers.com or text their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577 (847577).
