By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
A 21-year-old Harlem man fatally stabbed a neighbor and wounded his mother's boyfriend before he was shot to death by police inside his apartment complex Wednesday.
Carlton Lewis, of Harlem, taunted police and threatened them with the 6-inch knife used in the attack at the Frederick Samuel Houses on W. 144th St., reported the New York Post.
"He keeps coming. He is closing the distance between the lead officer and himself, coming at the officers with the dagger," said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne to the Daily News.
"The lead officer yells three times: 'Drop the knife!' He does not, and continues to come ... and the [lead] officer fires."
Police officer Adlai Pinney shot at Lewis five times, hitting him three times in the body and once on the shoulder, police said.
The knife attack began in the home Lewis shared with his mother, Towanda Lewis, and her boyfriend, Charles Davis, 50. Lewis stabbed Davis three times, then turned on neighbor Marco Betancourt, 39, when Betancourt tried to help Davis.
Davis was taken to Harlem Hospital Wednesday night.
Betancourt died at the scene, his 2-year-old son was in the apartment at the time of the attack but was not hurt.
The victim's neighbor, Yajaira Guzman, 29, told the Times Betancourt's wife worked the overnight shift and was not home when her husband was killed. The family had recently moved from a shelter in Brooklyn to the apartments, Guzman said.
