Man fatally stabbed at vets’ home

A 50-year-old man was stabbed to death outside a troubled city-owned veterans’ home in the Bronx — and his alleged killer was arrested hours later, cops said Sunday.

The victim, whose name was not released, was stabbed in the chest by a fellow resident outside the group home on Commonwealth Ave. near Gleason Ave. in Soundview on Saturday about 8 p.m. Saturday.

“They were arguing out here,” said fellow resident Stewart Harris, who was returning from a store when he encountered the duo shortly before the stabbing. “They were like 2 feet apart. I didn’t know what it was about. They were throwing out a lot of dirty words. (The stabber) said, ‘You b---- a-- n----, I’ll whoop your a--.’ He said it several times. (The victim) said, ‘What, do you want to fight?’ He wasn’t trying to encourage him or challenge him. It was rhetorical.”

Harris went inside and missed the stabbing.

Medics took the victim to Jacobi Medical Center but he could not be saved.

“He was very jovial but he’d argue about everything,” said another resident, Richard Melendez said of the victim. “He’d curse you out in a drunken state, but he’d really never hurt a fly. He’d disrespect you verbally, but that was all. It’s really very sad.”

Six hours after the stabbing, 61-year-old Theodore (Teddy) Whiting was nabbed and charged with murder, manslaughter and weapons possession, police said.

Witnesses said Whiting regularly carried a switchblade. “He’d whip it out and mess with his nails with it,” Melendez said. “He always mentioned if someone rubbed him the wrong way, this was his defense. I didn’t make nothing of it until yesterday.”

Whiting’s arraignment was pending in Bronx Criminal Court Sunday.

“With any ongoing investigation, I can’t talk about it except to say we are, of course, fully cooperating with the police investigation,” a Volunteers of America spokeswoman told The News.