By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — A recent college graduate charged with murder in the stabbing death of a man outside a Times Square bar walked free Friday, after a grand jury determined that he acted in self-defense.
Atdhe Gashi, 22, of Yonkers, was embraced by more than a dozen crying family members as he exited the court.
The recent honors graduate of Monroe college was arrested last Sunday for the murder of Elliott Paulino, 25, also of Yonkers, who died after he was stabbed in the chest outside the Playwright Bar on West 49th Street near Times Square early Saturday morning.
Gashi was released on Friday after his testimony before a grand jury convinced them to dismiss the second-degree murder charge against him.
"It's very unusual for a defendant to testify before the grand jury, but I was confident that if they heard his story [they would let him go]," Gashi's attorney, Robert Brown, said following the decision.
"He's a computer geek, he's not a tough kid."
Gashi, who works in the IT department of a Wall Street firm, was in Midtown celebrating a friend's birthday, when he had a bottle broken over his head, according to Brown and Gashi's girlfriend, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from associates of the deceased.
A fight broke out and Gashi and others, including Paulino, were kicked out of the bar, they said.
Once outside, Gashi was attacked by "six or seven" members of a Yonkers-based gang called "The Stillwell Boys," his girlfriend, who was there at the time, told DNAinfo.
A friend of Paulino, who asked not to be identified though he said he was one of the birthday boys, contested via email that it was "appx 3 other guys looking to fight with him," adding that The Stillwell Boys are not a gang, but "a group of friends that played football together at mark twain high school in yonkers."
Still, Gashi's girlfriend insisted, "They would have killed him," had he not bee carrying a 2.8 inch Leatherman pocket knife, which he plunged into Paulino's chest, according to his lawyer.
Gashi managed to get away, losing two shoes and a shirt in the process, Brown added. He was then treated for his injuries at Jamaica hospital, according to the attorney. He did not learn until the next day that the man he fought off had died, his lawyer said.
A tearful Gashi chose not to speak about the incident following his release.
"All I want to say is I'm happy to be here with my family," the slender son of immigrants from Kosovo said. "You go from the worst to the best case scenario."
"I'm happier than the day he was born," Gashi's father, Medi Gashi, 47, said outside the courtroom.
But not everyone was happy about the grand jury's decision.
"All i dont understand is how he had the knife so ready when everyone had come downstairs," the unidentified friend of Paulino wrote. "Trust me there is something wrong here and its not right."
Gashi's girlfriend also suggested that there may be fallout from the incident still to come.
"There have already been threats on Facebook," the 22-year-old, who's been dating Gashi for 6 years, said. "[They say] If he doesn't go to jail, he'll feel it outside of jail."
