Cops nab man in stab slaying
Victim died in dad’s arms after dispute over parking in Bronx
Cops have arrested the 45-yearold Bronx man who knifed a neighbor to death in a fight over parking, leaving his victim to die in his father’s arms, police said Friday.
Vladimir Lopez German was located and taken into custody Thursday evening, less than 24 hours after he allegedly stabbed Dominic Aguilera in the heart outside the apartment building where they both lived on Featherbed Lane near Inwood Ave.
Aguilera and his father Jose Cruz were getting ready to leave for work together when a downstairs neighbor, believed to be German, knocked on their door to demand the 19-year-old Bronxite move his vehicle, which was double parked and blocking his car.
Aguilera went downstairs and moved his silver Mercedes sedan a few feet away, but German, an Uber driver, was still enraged, the father told the Daily News Thursday.
German yelled at Aguilera and stabbed him across the chest — penetrating his heart — said Cruz, 52. The bleeding youth staggered at 8:23 a.m. into a nearby Morris Heights deli, where his father rushed to join him.
“I saw my son die. He passed away in my arms,” said the dad, who employed Aguilera at his Mount Vernon auto body shop. “Our whole family is in shock. We never expected anything like this.”
Paramedics rushed Aguilera to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.
The victim’s dad was haunted by Aguilera’s last words.
“Dad, don’t let me die,” he recalled the youth saying.
German jumped into his sedan and sped off before police arrived. Witnesses quickly identified German as the killer to police, who fanned out looking for the suspect.
Police charged German with murder, manslaughter and weapons possession. His arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending Friday.
Double parking in the area happens all the time, said the manager of the deli where Aguilera died.
“People double-park cars and block people who are legally parked, so when you want to get out, you can’t get out,” Wendy Reinoso said. “That’s what happened here.”
Reinoso recalled seeing Aguilera staggering into her deli covered in blood.
“When the kid came in, he was bleeding and then I called 911,” she said. “He was bleeding a lot.”
Reinoso said the young man died on the floor of her bodega as workers applied pressure to his wound.
“He then fell down on the floor,” Reinoso told The News as she pointed to the spot where Aguilera collapsed. “We hold the blood, but he passed right there.”