A Ridgewood man is being held without bail after he was accused of stabbing a man to death in front of a neighborhood bar during the early morning hours of Thursday, June 26.
Irvin Guzman, 28, of Madison Street, was taken into custody as a person of interest and arrested later that afternoon and booked at the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood for the fatal stabbing of a Brooklyn man.
Police from the 104th Precinct responded to a 911 call of an assault in progress just after 3:30 a.m. in front of Tequila Time Bar Cafe, located at 675 Seneca Ave., where they found a 35-year-old man in a pool of blood on the sidewalk with a stab wound to the stomach. EMS responded to the crime scene and rushed the victim to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he later succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead. The victim was later identified as Jose Reyes, of 8th Avenue in Sunset Park.
According to the criminal complaint, Guzman began arguing with another man in front of the tavern near the intersection of Gates Avenue and Seneca Avenue at around 3:15 a.m. when Guzman punched him in the face with a closed fist. When Reyes attempted to intervene in the assault, Guzman allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed him multiple times in his torso before throwing the knife into a sewer drain and running off.
Police spotted Guzman a short time later and he was taken into custody. Detectives recovered video surveillance of the altercation.
After he made statements and admissions, Guzman was arrested. He was arraigned on Friday, June 27, in Queens Criminal Court on a complaint charging him with murder in the second degree, assault in the third degree, menacing in the second degree, and tampering with physical evidence.
Queens Criminal Court Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar remanded Guzman into custody without bail. If convicted, Guzman faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
