THE BRONX — A man stabbed his girlfriend's son to death Tuesday night after accusing the 20-year-old of stealing his sneakers, police said.
Malcolm Jacob was found dead in his mother's home at 1372 Merriam Ave., in Morris Heights, around 8:15 p.m., according to police.
Jacob, who lived in Crown Heights, was visiting his mother when the fight started, police said.
"[It was a] heated dispute and it went physical," an NYPD spokesman said.
During the struggle, the 56-year-old man plunged a knife into Jacob's chest, police said.
Police did not name the boyfriend, who was not at the scene when investigators arrived. Sources said they were searching for him.
Jacob's most recent address is a foster home in Crown Heights where lived for around a year and left last fall, Jacob's former foster brother recalled.
"To me, he was friendly. He didn't bother nobody. He listened to music all the time," Damian Pressley, 22, said. "It was something to keep him occupied."
Pressley said his foster mother had told him about the stabbing and he was dumbfounded.
"You're going to stab somebody over a pair of sneakers?" he said. "Sneakers are not worth somebody's life."
Residents of the building where Jacob was killed said that his mother lived there with a daughter who is around 7 years old.
They said they'd heard many arguments coming from the apartment involving the mother and her boyfriend and, in some cases, Jacob.
Awilda Cruz, 48, who lives in the apartment above Jacob's mother, said she'd seen Jacob thrown out of the home numerous times. Afterwards, he would hang out in the hallway kicking and pounding on the door, she said.
On one occasion a few months back, Cruz said she came home to find the mother and her boyfriend fighting in front of the building. The woman's young daughter was sandwiched in between the two.
“Please! For my daughter's life, call the cops,” Cruz said the mother pleaded of her.
Cruz ran into the building and dialed 911, but by the time the police responded to the scene the couple was back in the apartment and refused to answer the door, she said.
Another neighbor, who did not want to give her name, said she often encountered the boyfriend and the mother arguing in the hallway or in front of the building.
The 57-year-old retired nurse, who is trained to talk to people with emotional problems, would often intervene and talk the couple down, she said.
Despite the arguments, the nurse said she never witnessed physical violence between the pair.
"They really cared about each other," she said.
On the night of the fatal fight, another neighbor who lived on the same floor as the Jacob's mother but did not want to give her name, said she heard banging and screaming coming from the apartment, then heard emergency workers arrive.
From her apartment upstairs, Cruz could hear the emergency workers say, "He's not breathing," before slamming the door shut.
"I feel bad," she said. "It's just a floor underneath us."
