State shuts bar year after slay
‘Finally,’ cries dad of fatally stabbed B’klyn horse carriage driver
The liquor license has been yanked from a problem-plagued Brooklyn bar where a young horse carriage driver trying to break up a fight was stabbed to death a year ago, state officials said Saturday.
The revocation order against Catrina’s Mexican Grill in Bay Ridge came shortly after the sad anniversary of 22-year-old Anthony D’Onofrio’s killing in a wild January 2022 melee outside the business cited on multiple occasions by the State Liquor Authority.
“Finally, after a year,” the victim’s father, Giuseppe D’Onofrio, told the Daily News. “It would have been better if they shut the place down completely. There were complaints before my son was killed. If they got on it before this, maybe my son would be here.”
Officials detailed a litany of issues with the bar after the 3:45 a.m. stabbing of Anthony D’Onofrio in a 10-man Jan. 29, 2022, brawl in the midst of a snowstorm — from underage drinking to illegal drug use, noise complaints, alleged sexual assaults and other violent incidents.
The victim “should still be alive today, and would be if Catrina’s had taken our community’s concerns seriously,” said City Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn). “I am grateful the state is cracking down [to] make sure what happened to Anthony never happens at Catrina’s again.”
The lethal battle occurred in front of the business, with a fellow carriage driver saying D’Onofrio was trying to defuse the situation when he was killed.
State Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn), who joined Brannan in demanding a shutdown of the neighborhood trouble spot immediately after the stabbing, cheered the long-awaited decision.
“Businesses that act with such wanton disregard have no place in our neighborhood,” said Gounardes. “It’s a shame that it took such a loss, but our community is better off now.”
A 19-year-old suspect was arrested for murder in the case, with authorities recovering a knife from the teen after he showed up at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn with a gash on his hand. D’Onofrio’s family donated the victim’s organs for transplant.
Catrina’s has long caused problems in the neighborhood, said Brannan.
The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, in a three-page complaint before the stabbing, described the business as “a focal point for police attention” and cited allegations of serving underage customers along with complaints of “noise, disturbance and misconduct” inside and outside the bar.
D’Onofrio, of Bensonhurst, followed in his father’s footsteps as a carriage driver, becoming a regular in the city’s carriage industry at the age of 8. Friends recalled how the second-generation driver took quickly to the job, developing an easy rapport with the horses and his colleagues. Social media tributes poured in after his death, including a video honoring the victim, with one friend describing him as “kind, loving, goofy and loyal”
His father expressed hope that authorities will continue to monitor the situation at the bar.
“They need to watch it closely and see if any illegal activity is still going on,” said Giuseppe D’Onofrio, whose son would have turned 23 last month. “It’s OK this happened, but it should have been done before all this.”