‘I did what I did’
Brooklyn man held in deadly machete attack fesses: cops
The Brooklyn man accused of using a machete to hack his family, killing his own grandfather, had only a brief statement for cops after his arrest — but it amounted to a confession, authorities said Tuesday.
“I did what I did, and there is nothing to talk about,” Dayquan DuBose, 22, allegedly told investigators after his arrest.
The stabbing left James DuBose Sr., 79, dead and wounded DuBose’s 4-year-old sister along with an older male relative, who tried to intervene.
DuBose was charged Monday with murder, assault, child endangerment and weapon possession for the Sunday night bloodshed in the family’s apartment on Putnam Ave. near Nostrand Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
DuBose struck his grandfather with the machete, killing him with a blow to the abdomen, according to the medical examiner.
He also slashed his 4-year-old sister, leaving her with a wound requiring stitches, according to prosecutors.
A 49-year-old male relative was slashed in the finger trying to intervene as DuBose was hacking his grandfather, according to prosecutors.
While some neighbors from the family’s home when they lived in Harlem told the Daily News Monday that they weren’t surprised by the calamity, people who lived down the hall from the DuBoses in Brooklyn told a different story Tuesday.
“He is a very loving young man, very humble, always wants to talk,” said Renee Sanders, 44, who lives on the second floor of the apartment building where the murder took place.
Sanders wasn’t home when the attack occurred but was shocked to find out Dayquan was behind it. She told The News that the rampage started on the ground floor of the building, where DuBose slashed his 4-year-old sister.
Then he went up to the second floor, where his grandfather lived, Sanders said.
“Apparently, he said he was gonna kill the whole family,” she said, based on what other neighbors heard from DuBose’s father, James DuBose Jr.
The deceased grandfather used to sit outside the building and people watch, Sanders recalled.
She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that his accused killer is the happy-go-lucky grandson she knew and liked.
“He’s [Dayquan] always happy. He’s always walking down the street rapping, always laughing, joking around. He mostly kept to himself, but had some friends in the neighborhood. When I heard it was him I was shocked,” she said. “He probably just snapped . . . I just hope that he gets the help he needs.”
But DuBose’s criminal record painted a less rosy picture of his past than Sanders remembers. He had been arrested 15 times before the killing, including on Oct. 4 for alleged misdemeanor assault, harassment and menacing. In that case, he bit his father’s finger and shoved him inside their apartment, according to a criminal complaint.
He was ordered after that incident to stay away from his father. The keep-away order was in effect through May 2021.
DuBose was ordered held without bail during his Monday night arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court.