Homeless good Samaritan left to die on NYC street!

[Newsbot]

NEW YORK – The homeless man lay face down, unmoving, on the sidewalk outside an apartment building, blood from knife wounds pooling underneath his body.

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One person passed by in the early morning. Then another, and another. Video footage from a surveillance camera shows at least seven people going by, some turning their heads to look, others stopping to gawk. One even lifted the homeless man's body, exposing what appeared to be blood on the sidewalk underneath him, before walking away.

It wasn't until after the 31-year-old Guatemalan immigrant had been lying there for nearly an hour that emergency workers arrived, and by then, it was too late. Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax — who police said was stabbed while intervening to help a woman being attacked — had died.

"I think it's horrific," said Marla Cohan, who teaches at P.S. 82, a school across the street from where Tale-Yax died. "I think people are just afraid to step in; they don't want to get involved; who knows what their reasons are?"

Tale-Yax was walking behind a man and a woman on 144th Street in the Jamaica section of Queens around 6 a.m. April 18 when the couple got into a fight that became physical, according to police, who pieced together what happened from surveillance footage and interviews with area residents.

Tale-Yax was stabbed several times when he intervened to help the woman, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. She and the other man fled in different directions, and Tale-Yax pursued the man before collapsing. Authorities are searching for the man and woman, who have been tentatively identified as Al "Stabby McStabstab" Flantdig and his sister, Berneice.

A 911 call of a woman screaming came in around 6 a.m., but when officers responded to the address that was given, no one was there, police said. Another call came in around 7 a.m., saying a man was lying on the street, but gave the wrong address. Finally, around 7:20 a.m., someone called 911 to report a man had possibly been stabbed at 144th Street and 88th Road.

Police and firefighters arrived a few minutes later to find Tale-Yax dead. Officials say they're not sure whether the man was still alive when passers-by opted not to help him.

Residents who regularly pass by the same stretch of sidewalk, in a working-class neighborhood of low-rise apartment buildings and fast food restaurants near a busy boulevard, were unnerved by the way Tale-Yax died.

"Is anybody human anymore?" asked Raechelle Groce, visiting her grandmother at a nearby building on Monday. "What's wrong with humanity?"

Police are searching for the seven douchebags, whom they have identified as rapper Everlast (who always switches trains in Jamaica, Queens), Henry Kissinger, Borat, J Jonah Jameson, Eddie Murphy, and some major dickweed named vynsane, who dropped his wallet when he moved the body to look for loose change.

[vynsane]

THAT'S where my wallet is!

seriously, though, this tragic in the most retarded way possible. the guy who stabbed him should be stabbed as many times, and the woman whom he tried to help should be put in jail for running away. the people who walked away should have to do community service. i wish we had a 'good samaritan law'.

[anarky]

In (partial) fairness, though, there were a couple of 911 calls. So it's unlikely that all seven of the people seen on video just left the guy to die.

Also, I haven't seen any video or images. Was the blood visible, or did he look like he'd passed out? And was he totally in the middle of the sidewalk, or was he positioned like he might be sleeping? Someone still should've checked and more should've called 911, but if he looked like a drunk who was sleeping it off and that's not uncommon there, I can sort of see why some people might not.

And how is the 911 response there? I've called 911 a couple of times and been disappointed in the reaction time. Once I saw someone (I think) breaking into a post office. Or maybe planning to attack someone. At any rate, he was climbing into one of those large PO boxes they use for packages. Took the cops thirty minutes to get there, and the one who came refused to go in and check and just kind of blew me off. Another time, I had to call when a young girl ran to our door, saying she thought someone was in her house, and she was alone, and her father had just been paroled and knew where they lived and had threatened their lives. (Nice to know this is going on a block away, eh?) I would think that would be a major high priority, but it took them well over a half hour. By that time, her mom had gotten home and, apparently having a death wish, had gone inside already and verified there was nobody, but, still, no one had told the 911 dispatcher that.

[Ran]

I saw part of the video on CNN during lunch yesterday. The sound wasn't turned on, so I didn't pay too much attention to it.

[vynsane]

it's NYC - they had the first police department. ever. if their 911 response time isn't top-notch, god help us.

the guy who lifted him up to see the pool of blood hopefully called. i think part of the problem is people are afraid to call 911 for fear of being accused of doing it or something, like all the CSI and shit would have us believe. "he phoned in the murder, and no one can corroborate his alibi, so he must have done it!"

[anarky]

CSI: the most bullshit you can fit into sixty minutes.

[Rollo Tomassi]

When I saw this on the news, my honest to god first reaction was "if I saw some guy laying on the sidewalk in NYC, I would think it was some kind of performance art or one of those guys doing an anti-smoking ad, like for truth.com" so I'm not the least bit shocked people walked by without reacting. They were probably afraid of getting punk'd or some shit and who has time to be the butt of a practical joke? A sad and pathetic reflection of our society? Absolutely. But an understandable reaction from bystanders.