S.I. love triangle slaying
Knife-wielding guy choked to death by rival, say cops
A bitter love triangle ended in a shocking Christmas Day clash after one man armed with a knife went looking for his rival at a Staten Island apartment building and was choked to death, his limp body left in the hallway, police said Saturday.
Rafael Ramos, 36, of Seaver Ave., was found unconscious on the second floor of the Elbee Gardens apartments on Clove Road near Weser Ave. in Grasmere about 7:15 a.m. after panicked residents called 911 to report a man armed with a knife was banging on apartment doors.
Arriving officers found Ramos on a hallway floor, where he was being treated by EMS workers. He was declared dead at the scene.
Tenant Emanuel Diaz, 32 — who was in the apartment with a woman and two children who were between 4 and 6 years old — was taken into custody and charged with murder, strangulation, criminal obstruction of breathing and assault.
“It’s a crime of passion,” a police source told the Daily News. “Both of then are involved with the same woman. The dead guy confronted him with a knife and he choked him.”
The woman inside the Staten Island apartment, however, “is not the object of their rivalry,” the source said.
The disturbing violence rattled residents of the building.
“The guy who died was kicking the other guy’s door,” said a neighbor from the second floor, who asked not to be named. “The other guy opened the door. They go in the apartment for 10 or 15 minutes.”
Diaz stated that as they fought, Ramos slashed him in the face, said police sources. Diaz stated he ultimately got the upper hand and choked Ramos to death, the sources said.
The woman inside the apartment, who identified herself as Diaz’s wife, and the little boy and girl were in the apartment when Ramos was killed, said cops.
Surveillance footage seen by The News shows the tenant dragging the knife-wielding man’s apparently lifeless body into the hallway. “The guy was dragging the body by the legs, like some garbage bag,” the neighbor said.
Diaz briefly returned to the apartment, the footage shows.
When he reemerged into the hallway, Diaz rifled the dead man’s pockets and conversed with a neighbor who stood nearby, the video shows.
Diaz stated he moved the body because he didn’t want the children in the apartment to see it, said police sources. The children were his own, a police source said. He did not immediately explain how he knew the victim, cops said.
Police said when officers encountered Diaz, he was covered in blood and had a laceration on his face. He was taken to Staten Island University Hospital for treatment before he was booked in Ramos’ slaying.
Ramos had a rap sheet that included a 2018 assault of a former girlfriend’s grandmother, a police source said.