Girlfriend held in stab slay of man in B’klyn apt.
A 47-year-old man who neighbors said was constantly harassed by his girlfriend was stabbed to death in a luxury building in Brooklyn and the 29-year-old woman was taken into custody, police said Monday.
Jonathan Allen was stabbed once in the upper body in his apartment at the high-end Denizen Bushwick on Melrose St. near Evergreen Ave. at around 4:15 p.m. Sunday, cops said.
Medics rushed him to Woodhull Hospital, where he later died. Police said the knife used in the murder was found in the kitchen. His girlfriend is being questioned by cops, but the Daily News is not naming her because she has not been charged.
Allen's father said his son had worked for Amtrak in the traffic signaling department for 16 years, joining him on the job right after graduating high school.
His former co-workers were left in mourning Monday.
“Amtrak is like a family. In Penn Station, many of them are in tears right now,” said Johnnie Allen, 69.
Allen was a superfan of sports, especially when it came to the Knicks, Nets and Giants, said his father. The victim bottles and cans for extra money and lived “a very simple life”.
“I've never seen her, but I heard there was big problems in the past,” the grieving dad said of the girlfriend.
He last saw his son about three weeks ago, when he and his brother came over to the Denizen. Allen seemed happy, said his father.
“This is a big mess. I never contemplated this — never,” he lamented.
A neighbor on the first floor remembered how the girlfriend's rantings would keep her husband up after work.
“[My husband] worked overnights, when he got home at 2 in the morning and he needed to go to sleep she'd be out there pounding and pounding until 3, 4, 5 in the morning — cops were there,” said Michelle Hussey, 44.
“It was just a terrible situation,” she told The News. “It's tragic.”
Another building resident who did not share her name said that the girlfriend “terrorized” the neighbors by not only banging on Allen's door, but constantly screaming insults and demands to be let into his apartment, too.
The neighbor recalled opening the door and telling the girlfriend to shut up early one morning.
“She charged at me, so I slammed it in her face,” said the woman.
“Not as much recently, but before cops were here at least once a month, once every three weeks,” she added.
Outside each apartment is a decorative plexiglass box with objects inside.
“The reason he doesn't have one is she literally ripped it from the door and smashed it into a million pieces against the hallway walls,” said the woman.
“He was always superfriendly and nice with me,” she continued. “Anytime I asked him why he continues to let her in or let her, you know, anywhere near him, he would say there's not much I can do.
“It's just really sad. He always talked about his daughter. He would say, ‘You remind me of my daughter.'”
In addition to a daughter, Allen had two sons, according to family.
After years of outbursts and blowups, building management got involved, seeking proof of the disruptions from neighbors.
“Building management had sent all of the first-floor neighbors emails probably like a year and a half ago saying if you have any videos, pictures, evidence of them fighting please let us know,” said the woman.
Denizen then tried to evict both Allen and the girlfriend's mother from another floor, despite the fact that the girlfriend didn't live with either of them but at a nearby shelter, said Antoine Morris, a Legal Aid lawyer who represented the victim.
Morris said building management was biased against his client because he was a Section 8 tenant, adding that the ongoing disturbances were not his fault.
“I do think it was unfair for them to go after him, because my client made efforts to avoid her,” said Morris. “I think it's telling that all these incidents happened when she went there. I didn't see any allegations that he went to her shelter.
“It was often her going to him,” said the lawyer. “She would often call the police alleging that he had attacked her.”
Building residents wondered if the sad situation could have been avoided.
“You know something horrible is going to happen, but how can you differentiate between this time's yells and last time's yells?” said one neighbor.