Fiancée of stab victim rejects self-defense finding in fatal fight

Cops said a man stabbed in a Queens street fight was killed in self-defense — but the victim’s fiancée, who witnessed the horror with their two small children, said it was the other way around.

Gerard Moreno, 30, died Saturday at Jamaica Hospital from stab wounds he suffered Jan. 27 during an 8:40 p.m. fight on Queens Blvd. near 70th Road in Forest Hills, cops said.

On Tuesday, three days after Moreno (photo) died, cops charged 27-year-old Nicholas Loiacono with menacing and attempted weapon possession.

Police said Loiacono, who lives in Massapequa, L.I., was walking down the street when he made a comment to Moreno, who appeared to be acting up. The comment sparked an argument that turned physical, with both men pulling out sharp objects.

Police said Moreno was stabbed in the chest and Loiacono ran off. Loiacono later returned to the scene but was not charged at that time, cops said.

But Moreno’s fiancée, Dartizo Soto, 29, said it was Moreno who was defending himself — and his family — from Loiacono.

Though they weren’t yet married, Soto called Moreno her husband. She said they were walking behind a double stroller when a man began laughing, staring and pointing at them.

She said she tried to hold Moreno back as he moved to confront the stranger.

“I said, ‘‘Let’s go,’ and I was pushing him away from the guy,” Soto said. “He came out of my grasp and went toward the guy.

“The other guy, Nicholas, was walking toward my husband. They started talking smack to each other. I got in the middle of it. I told the gentleman to leave, and he did, in fact, leave.”

But Loiacono was only gone briefly, Soto said. She said Loiacono jumped into a parked car with another man who also threatened the family.

“You’re a dead man, now,” the other guy in the car said, according to Soto. Then Loiacono jumped out. “Now he had a weapon and he was charging toward me, my kids and my husband,” Soto said.

She said she spun the stroller around and tried to grab Moreno.

“But I lost my grip and they start tussling,” she said. “Nicholas stabs him. He did it so good I couldn’t believe he didn’t have a criminal past — unless he’s never been caught before.”

Soto said Moreno had a pair of scissors in his pocket, but said he gave them to her before the fight began.

She said she called 911 and so did the other man — though he was calling police on Moreno.

Before police and EMS arrived, Soto said, the other man in the car came at Moreno armed with two knives.

“He went toward us, charging toward us, grabbed my husband from the shoulders and throws him in the middle of the street like he was a piece of garbage, as if he wasn’t even human,” she said.

But cops said surveillance video backs up Loiacono’s self-defense claim.

“He had every chance to leave and chose not to,” Soto said. “He came out of the vehicle with the knife and charged back at us. Nobody followed him to the vehicle.”

Soto does not believe she and Moreno threatened Loiacono, that she asked him repeatedly to leave them alone.

“I don’t believe that was self-defense,” she said of Loiacono’s attack. “He came back at us and killed my husband.”

Regardless of who started the deadly fight, Moreno’s kids are still without a father.

“I’ve been throwing up. I can’t go to sleep. Every time I close my eyes I see them. I’m scared to go outside. I’m terrified,” Soto said.

“My son has not been acting the same,” she said of her 5-year-old boy. “He’s crying in his sleep. He asks for his dad a lot. He looks lost. I’ve caught him in a daze, just looking.”

Moreno had arrests on his record dating to at least 2001, when he was charged with robbery. He was paroled in April 2019 after serving more than two years in state prison for weapon possession.

Moreno’s mother said she is hoping to see surveillance video of the fight so she can better understand what happened.

“My son wasn’t an angel,” she said. “Yes, he had a record, but that doesn’t justify what they did to him.

“Right now I’m devastated,” the grieving mom said. “If my son was in the wrong, I have to accept it. I just need to see footage, I need more details.”

She said her son has four children ranging from 2 years old to 13 years old.

“The girlfriend has changed my son’s life and this is so sad that this happened,” she said. “She showed him what true love is. My son changed so much.

“I don’t know what happened. All I know is my son died. This is a parent’s worst nightmare. He took my son’s life and now my grandkids don’t have a father.”