PRINCE JOSHUA "PJ" AVITTO and (MICHAELA CAPERS injured) - 6 and 7 yo (6/14) - / Charged: Daniel St. Hubert - Brooklyn, NY

'They took my little boy away from me': Dad of 6-year-old boy stabbed to death in Brooklyn elevator mourns loss of son 



Nicholas Avitto, the father of 6-year-old Prince Joshua (P.J.) Avitto, took a symbolic walk to school with his son’s backpack, like the two did most mornings. P.J. was killed when a man stabbed him and his 7-year-old friend, Mikayla Capers, while they were in an elevator. Mikayla escaped, but was seriously injured. There were no security cameras to record the attack, officials said. The NYPD is offering a $12,000 reward for information.


Published: Monday, June 2, 2014, 10:33 AM
Updated: Tuesday, June 3, 2014, 10:12 AM



Handouts Mikayla Capers, 7 (left), was critically wounded and her friend, 6-year-old Prince Joshua Avitto (right), was killed after a knife-wielding man attacked them in a Brooklyn elevator. 

Police launched a massive manhunt Monday for the madman who fatally stabbed a Brooklyn boy and who may also be responsible for the murder of a teenager in the same neighborhood.

Police released a sketch Monday night of the hulking suspect who butchered 6-year-old Prince Joshua Avitto — and they pointed to striking similarities between that frenzied killing and the Friday night murder of 18-year-old Tanaya Grant.

The little boy, known as P.J., was stabbed to death in an elevator by a monster wielding what police called a “kitchen-variety steak knife,” who also wounded the child’s 7-year-old playmate, Mikayla Capers.

The morning after the murder, the father of the fallen child slung his son’s superheroes backpack over his shoulder and set off down the path they walked most mornings from their Brooklyn housing project to Public School 306.

But this time, Nicholas Avitto walked alone.


Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News 
Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News 
The father of slain 6-year-old old Prince Joshua Avitto takes a symbolic walk to his son's school carrying his book bag.


“With the backpack on my back, I just walked to the school,” the heartbroken dad said. “I talked to him. I acted like he was there.”

Avitto, 56, said he was not ready to let his P.J. go.

“God gave me a blessing,” he said. “I had him at 50. He was born on Father’s Day. I will remember his smile, his arrogance, his stubborn little ways. He’d say, ‘Daddy, you all right!’ ”

Pausing for a moment, Avitto said, “I’m just so hurt.”


Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News 
Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News
Nicholas and Erica Avitto mourn the loss of their son, Prince Joshua, after he was attacked in an elevator.


“They took my little boy away from me, oh, my God,” he said.

Mikayla, who somehow survived the butchery, was transferred overnight to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia as police scoured East New York for the killer.

“She’s in stable condition,” her mother, Sherina Capers, said.

“I feel blessed that she’s OK,” she said.


Prince Joshua Avitto, 6 (left), and playmate Mikayla Capers, 7, grew up together, Avitto's grieving father said.


Cops strongly suspect the man who attacked the kids also fatally stabbed Grant in the same neighborhood.

Grant, a freshman at Long Island University and member of a marching band, was on her way to a friend’s home when she was attacked.

“My daughter was not starting a fight,” said her mother Rochelle Copeland, 48. “I was making arrangements to bury my daughter when I heard about these other two.”

The attacker was wearing similar clothing and in both cases the victims were slain with cheap knives with black plastic handles, NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis said.

Police have released this sketch of the suspect wanted in the stabbing of the two children. 

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said additional cops are now patrolling the Boulevard Houses on Schenck Ave.

“This is a particularly heinous crime,” Bratton said. “Let’s face it, two young children in an elevator with no place to escape, nothing at all. Some character gets on and just starts stabbing you. They have every right to be concerned.”

Bratton urged residents to be extra careful while the search goes on for the killer.

“Until we get this person or people, it would be advisable just to be extra cautious,” he said. “We’re going to get this character, and, hopefully, we’ll get him very quickly.”

New York Daily News

“There is a massive effort underway to find the perpetrator,” added Mayor de Blasio. “Every effort is being expended by the NYPD to find this heinous individual immediately and end any threat he might pose to the people of New York City.”

Little Mikayla’s great-grandmother said that can’t happen too soon.

“Whoever this bastard is ... that’s worse than sick,” said Regenia Trevathan, 62. “This is just horrible.”

There were no security cameras in the lobby of the building or in the elevator to record the attack on the two kids, officials said.

Poor thing fought her little heart out. She fought for her life. She has defensive wounds on her hands.

Nearly a year ago, NYCHA allocated $500,000 to install them and in the spring, contractors were “in place and ready to go,” city public housing officials said Monday.

Why the cameras had not yet been installed was unclear.

“Even as recently as of March or April, they were still talking about where they were going to put the cameras,” said City Councilwoman Inez Barron, whose district includes Boulevard Houses. “It certainly is a tragedy that they were not in. Unfortunately, this incident occurred, but we hope that this is the spark to get it done immediately.”

Last year, NYCHA began installing cameras at 80 developments after the Daily News revealed the agency had been sitting on some $45 million in funding for years that was supposed to pay for cameras at high-crime projects.

Police stand guard outside the apartment building after two children were stabbed, one fatally, in the elevator on Sunday.



P.J. and Mikayla were playing outside Sunday when they were told there were ices waiting for them back in the building, Davis said.

The kids were already in the elevator when the killer barged inside at 5:50 p.m., police said.

Believed to be in his 20s, the lumbering, knife-wielding attacker stabbed both children in the torso on the lift somewhere between the first and fourth floors after telling them to “shut up,” police sources said.

When the elevator returned to the ground floor, the butcher fled, stumbling at one point, a witness told police.

NYPD Police released this photo of the weapon used in the attack on the two children.

Mikayla managed to crawl out of the lift, trailing blood as she went, Davis said. P.J. was found inside the blood-soaked compartment.

“Poor thing fought her little heart out,” said Trevathan, a retired city Correction Department officer. “She fought for her life. She has defensive wounds on her hands.”

Both children were rushed to Brookdale University Hospital, where P.J. died.

“I was there when the doctor came to Erica, P.J.’s mom, and said, ‘I’m sorry, your son didn’t make it,’ ” Trevathan said. “Everyone lost it. I fell to the floor.”


Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News 
Kevin C. Downs for New York Daily News
Family members of the two children speak on the brutal attack.


Travis Walker of the Bronx, who identified himself as Mikayla’s dad, said, “I’m just worried about my daughter. She’s a little girl. I know that neighborhood. It’s dangerous around there.”

Avitto, in tears, said his son was “happy-go-lucky” and “very curious, a learner.”

The NYPD is offering a $12,000 reward for help in an arrest, and asked people to call (800) 577-TIPS.


http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/brooklyn-woman-trusts-nypd-catch-madman-stabbed-great-grandaughter-7-killed-6-year-old-boy-elevator-article-1.1813910#ixzz33iTl6xak

Police suspect man who fatally stabbed two young children in Brooklyn killed others

Tuesday, June 03, 2014
CHICAGO (WLS) --

Two children, innocently heading out of their apartment building in Brooklyn, NY, to get ice cream, were stabbed repeatedly in an elevator Sunday night.

Prince Joshua "PJ" Avitto, 6, and Michaela Capers, 7, were stabbed 15 times according to police. Avitto died while Capers is still hospitalized and fighting for her life. Police now believe the same man is also responsible for killing Tanaya Grant Copeland, 18. She was stabbed 30 times as she walked home from band practice Friday night four blocks away from where Avitto was murdered.

Avitto is the cousin of Chicago Bulls Forward Taj Gibson. Gibson posted a photo on Instagram with the caption, "They killed my lil super man. #rippj Only two more weeks until your 7 birthday. Tears forever. This can't be life #foreversuperman #babycuzz."

Police released a sketch of the suspected killer, which Avitto's grieving father said he recognized.

"I saw this sketch and it dawned on me that he was the one I used to give a dollar or something to," said Nicholas Avitto. "It's a homeless guy. I've seen him in my hallway sleeping."

Police are working nonstop to track down the killer as two devastated families plan funerals.

"This is a particularly heinous crime," said William J. Bratton, New York City Police Commissioner. There is now a $13,000 reward being offered for information leading to the killer's arrest, and the FBI now may be involved in the investigation.

http://abc7chicago.com/news/taj-gibsons-cousin-6-fatally-stabbed-in-brooklyn-elevator/90878/

Suspect Is Arrested in Stabbing of 2 Brooklyn Children


By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN and J. DAVID GOODMAN
JUNE 4, 2014



Mayor Bill de Blasio joined Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, Robert Boyce, the Police Department's chief of detectives, and Eric L. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, on Wednesday at Police Headquarters where police identified a suspect in the stabbing death of a 6-year-old Brooklyn boy. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times



A man was arrested Wednesday night in Queens in connection with the stabbing death of a 6-year-old Brooklyn boy, hours after investigators used forensic evidence to identify a suspect, a police official said.

News of the arrest came less than an hour after police officials publicly identified the suspect, Daniel St. Hubert, 27. He has a long arrest record, including assault, and was paroled on May 23, the chief of detectives, Robert Boyce, said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who cleared a packed schedule Wednesday night to appear at a news conference at Police Headquarters with Police Commissioner William J. Bratton just before 8 p.m., said no effort had been spared to ensure that the suspect was tracked down.

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  After Boy and Girl Are Stabbed, Anger Over a Lack of Cameras  JUNE 2, 2014
  
  
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  Boy, 6, Dies After a Stabbing in Brooklyn JUNE 1, 2014
  
  

An official speaking on the condition of anonymity said earlier that a preliminary match had been made between DNA on the knife used to kill the boy and a profile in the New York State database. At the news conference, the police declined to detail the nature of the forensic evidence recovered.


A memorial for Prince Joshua Avitto, 6, outside the Boulevard Houses, where he was killed on Sunday. Credit Uli Seit for
The New York Times

For much of Wednesday afternoon, an arrest seemed imminent.

Chief Boyce said at a news conference earlier in the day that the “case has picked up a lot of steam.” But by night, he returned to the podium at Police Headquarters to say that detectives had yet to locate the suspect and that no arrests had been made.

For days, the police had been canvassing for witnesses, circulating a sketch of a man said to be the suspect, and going over arrests made nearby, including those for trespassing in public housing, in search of any possible leads in the crime.

With the matching of DNA from the knife to a name in the state criminal database, the investigation shifted to finding that person.
But even with the name, the suspect could not immediately be located and the mayor and police commissioner asked for help from the public, which had already flooded the Police Department with tips.

Police said Mr. St. Hubert is only a suspect in the attack on the boy and a 7-year-old girl and was not at this time a suspect in the fatal stabbing of Tanaya Copeland two nights earlier. Ms. Copeland, 18, was attacked with a similar knife on a street several blocks from the housing project where the children were stabbed. The police have said her killing may be linked to the attack on the two children.

That killing, on May 30, has drawn increased attention since the attack on the children. Prince Joshua Avitto, 6, who was known as P.J., was killed and Mikayla Capers, 7, was critically wounded.

The children were set upon as they boarded an elevator in the Boulevard Houses in East New York, and the crime has set the community on edge and led to outraged calls by elected leaders for better security in the neighborhood. Only one of the 18 buildings in the complex has security cameras, delaying efforts to get an image of a suspect in the boy’s killing.

On Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized the New York City Housing Authority, saying the agency moved too slowly to install cameras in housing projects, despite the fact that millions of dollars had been allocated by the city for that purpose.

With no video of the attack, a sketch of the man circulated widely in the neighborhood, staring out from lamp posts, parking signs and store windows.


Rochelle Copeland, the mother of Tanaya Copeland, the 18-year-old who on Friday was found stabbed to death a few
blocks from where the children were attacked, speaking at a news conference Wednesday. Credit Uli Seit for
The New York Times

Detectives scoured the area for any relevant videos and witnesses, going door to door in the vast housing project, where more than 3,300 residents live.


Detectives had also lifted fingerprints found inside the elevator where the children were attacked, hoping that the prints of the assailant were among the many prints inside. It was not immediately known if the suspect’s prints turned up there.

But the main physical evidence in both murders are the kitchen knives the killer left behind. Outside the housing development, witnesses saw the fleeing man drop an eight-inch blade with “Dura Edge by Imperial Knife” written on the side, the police said; that line of knives has not been manufactured since 2004. The same make of blade was left near Ms. Copeland’s body, the police said.

In that case, there were no witnesses to the killing or the suspect’s flight, only a grainy camera image of a man — of husky build and in clothes similar to those described in Sunday’s attack — running from near the scene. A taxi driver found the body of Ms. Copeland, a popular teenager who played in a community marching band, on the street and called the police.

The longer the manhunt went unresolved, the more frayed nerves have become in the area of East New York.

At a news conference Wednesday morning, Borough President Eric Adams told residents to call police if they saw the suspect, not take the law into their own hands. He was echoed by Rochelle Copeland, the mother of Ms. Copeland. She also warned her neighbors to stay alert, and not walk around with their attention focused on their phones.

Overheard conversations among neighbors, around shaded benches, on street corners, and in delis, crackled with anger, and a want for revenge.

“If I see him, that’s it, I only need less than a minute with him,” said a man.

“Do that to a child? The streets will tear him apart, and he’ll deserve it,” said another.

The supermarket chain Western Beef announced on Wednesday they would give $50,000 for information leading to the conviction of the killer. This increased the pot of reward money to nearly $70,000.

Near where two uniformed officers kept up the police line in front of the building where P.J. was killed, the shrine to the boy continued to grow — with candles, stuffed toys, Spider Man balloons and a hand drawn portrait of the boy.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/05/nyregion/suspect-arrested-in-brooklyn-child-stabbing-case.html

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A man appeared before a judge late Thursday, after being charged in an elevator stabbing in Brooklyn that killed a 6-year-old boy and critically injured a 7-year-old girl is also being eyed in two other knife attacks in the city.

As CBS 2′s Dave Carlin reported, Daniel St. Hubert, 27, was apprehended on Wednesday evening.

He was officially charged Thursday with murder, attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, making graffiti, and possession of a graffiti instrument.

He had been wanted for killing Prince Joshua “P.J.” Avitto and critically injuring Mikayla Capers at the Boulevard Houses in East New York on Sunday.

A crowd yelled at St. Hubert and called him a murderer as he was led out of the 90th Precinct police station in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Thursday night.

He was taken to Brooklyn Criminal Court, where an Assistant District Attorney requested that St. Hubert remain in custody due to the "heinous and vicious nature" his crime, Carlin reported. Prosecutors also considered him a flight risk, and said he was supposed to be in a halfway house but absconded.

The hearing was adjourned and was set to resume on Friday in Brooklyn Supreme Court, CBS 2's Jessica Schneider reported.

As 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported, one resident who saw St. Hubert outside the police station said the defendant actually did not look like the monster he is accused of being.

"He looked young, meek and mild, so it's very sad," she said.

Another resident said a way must be found to keep similar people from being released from prison and immediately attacking people.

Police: Defendant May Be Linked To Subway Attack

Meanwhile Thursday, investigators said St. Hubert also may be connected to a subway stabbing attack Wednesday in Chelsea. In that incident, a man was stabbed multiple times on the southbound No. 1 train platform at 18th Street, police said.

Police spokesman Stephen Davis said St. Hubert was seen on surveillance video near the subway station where the attack occurred. Witnesses said a man who looks like St. Hubert was also seen on the subway platform, Davis said.

In that attack, sources told CBS 2 the victim, a 52-year-old homeless man, was sleeping on the platform and St. Hubert was sitting on a bench. St Hubert then got on an incoming train, quickly jumped off and sat on the same bench.

A witness then heard grunting, turned back around and saw St. Hubert walking away holding a brown knife with an 8- to 10-inch handle, sources told CBS 2.

The witness said the homeless man then yelled, “he just stabbed me,” staggered out of the station, and collapsed on Seventh Avenue and 18th Street, sources said.

The victim was listed in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital as of Thursday.

Police said they are also investigating whether St. Hubert may have stabbed to death 18-year-old Tanaya Copeland, who was killed Friday just a few blocks away from Sunday’s incident.

A similar knife was found at the scene of Copeland’s slaying, but more forensic and DNA testing is needed, police said.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/06/05/brooklyn-stabbing-suspect-meets-angry-crowd-faces-judge-for-first-time/

Brooklyn kid-stabber Daniel St. Hubert was disciplined a dozen times in prison: records

The man charged with fatally stabbing Prince Joshua (P.J.) Avitto, 6, and badly wounding his 7-year-old friend in a housing project elevator acted out multiple times during his stint in three different New York State prisons, records show — repeatedly defying his jailers and getting caught with a weapon, among other offenses.

BY GREG B. SMITH , CORKY SIEMASZKO NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, June 6, 2014, 1:44 PM
Updated: Friday, June 6, 2014, 10:54 PM

Records reveal that Daniel St. Hubert, shown at his arraignment in a Brooklyn court Thursday, was a repeat offender while in prison for almost two years.

The Brooklyn butcher was no model prisoner when he was doing time for trying to strangle his mother.

Daniel St. Hubert, who is accused of fatally stabbing a Brooklyn boy and badly injuring his playmate in a housing project elevator, was disciplined a dozen times during his stints in three state prisons, records show.

St. Hubert repeatedly defied his jailers, was caught with a weapon and “stolen property,” and in one case slugged a guard in the shoulder.

St. Hubert, 27, caused a ruckus at the Downstate Correctional Facility in August 2012 when he “vociferously entered the classroom claiming he has a GED.”

Told to pipe down, St. Hubert “continued to be loud causing a disturbance amongst the other inmates.”

St. Hubert had to be escorted back to his cell and was hit with two more disciplinary charges.

Two months later, guards found a “weapon fashioned from a metal can lid wrapped in tissue in St. Hubert’s locker.”

Then in March 2013, while at the Great Meadow Correctional Facility, St. Hubert punched a correction officer in the shoulder after refusing to get back in line.

Finally on March 18, records revealed St. Hubert played class clown at a “health wellness” seminar at the Clinton Correctional Facility. The topic for discussion was “how to relieve stress to improve your mental health.”

“I like to spend my time watching porn,” said St. Hubert, who proceeded to “speak about pornographic material to the class.”

“I told him to stop,” the nurse in charge reported. “At this point, the entire class was laughing.”

Two months later, St. Hubert was sprung. Nine days after that, 6-year-old Prince Joshua (P.J.) Avitto was dead and Mikayla Capers, 7, was fighting for her life. The new revelations came as State Sen. Catherine Young (D-Buffalo), the sponsor of Kendra’s Law, filed an amendment requiring that all inmates with mental issues be evaluated before they are released — even ones like St. Hubert who refused treatment in jail.

His sister, Judith Perry, claims he is paranoid schizophrenic who was released on May 23 with no meds and no psychiatric referral.

Perry says she pleaded for help, but the state gave her brother no meds for his demons and did not direct him to a psychiatrist before they unleashed him on an unsuspecting public.

Now police also suspect St. Hubert killed an 18-year-old college student and critically injured a 53-year-old homeless man. Prison officials have declined to discuss St. Hubert’s mental problems. But records show he was committed to mental health facilities three times.

Five years ago, according to a criminal complaint, the 5-foot-9, 210-pound St. Hubert wrapped an electrical cord around the throat of his mother, Marie Bauzile, and said, “Mom, I’m going to kill you.” When the now-60-year-old woman blacked out, he stole her car.

Three times after Queens prosecutors charged him with attacking his mom, he was ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluations. Three times he was deemed not mentally fit and committed to a state mental health facility.

And three times he was then “deemed fit” to stand trial.

All told, St. Hubert spent about 21 months in these facilities — first committed on April 19, 2010, and for the last time on Nov. 29, 2011, records show. As a result, he didn’t plead guilty to the attempted murder of his mother and an assault on a correction officer until June 11, 2012.

When a judge asked if St. Hubert was mentally fit to proceed, the prosecutor replied, “This is his first day back fit.”

While in prison, St. Hubert was made to serve his full five-year sentence because he refused psychiatric treatment, officials said.

State officials said that St. Hubert had a home visit and two office visits with his parole officer after his May release. He didn’t appear for a fourth visit Wednesday and correction officials obtained an arrest warrant for parole violation after learning he left his residence.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/brooklyn-kid-stabber-engaged-violent-conduct-prison-records-article-1.1819815#ixzz3444MqFcP