MIDTOWN — A convicted murderer released on parole in October who was living at a Midtown homeless shelter slashed a fellow resident with a knife on Saturday following an argument, according to police.
The dispute began around 11 a.m. on Jan. 30 at the Samaritan Village men’s shelter at 225 E. 53rd St. when the victim, a 36-year-old man, told his roommate Mark Bradford, 48, not to smoke inside, according to a police spokeswoman.
Shortly after exchanging words, Bradford slashed his roommate in the chest while the two were in the elevator, police said. Bradford fled the shelter, but officers caught up with him nearby, according to a police report.
The victim was transported to a nearby hospital, where he required six stitches to treat the wound, according to the Daily News.
The assault came just days after a resident of an East Harlem shelter for men with mental illness fatally slit the throat of his roommate.
Prosecutors charged Bradford with felony assault, and a judge ordered him held on $25,000 bail pending his next court date on Feb. 5, court records show.
Bradford had been released on Oct. 16 from Edgecombe Correctional Facility after serving a total of nearly 30 years of a 15-years-to-life sentence for murder, records show.
Bradford and two other men were convicted of the Jan. 31, 1984 robbery and murder of Herman Jean, who was shot to death after Bradford and several accomplices surrounded him, held him up at gunpoint, and gunned him down as he changed a tire on Eastern Parkway, court documents show.
Authorities denied him parole twice in 1998 and 2000 and finally released him under community supervision in August of 2002, but he ended up back in prison six months later on an unspecified parole violation and served another 12 years before his most recent release, according to a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
The 53rd Street shelter, run by the charity organization Samaritan Village, is a men-only facility with 127 beds, and residents require a referral from the Department of Homeless Services to get a spot there, according to Coalition for the Homeless.
Reached for comment about the slashing, DHS spokeswoman Nicole Cueto, pointed to a new $22 million initiative by the de Blasio administration, called NYC Safe, to help protect the public and get help for violent mentally ill shelter residents.
“The safety of our shelter residents, workers, and the surrounding community is of utmost importance, and that's why the de Blasio administration has increased funding for security by 35 percent since taking office, including over 115 additional peace officers for our shelters," Cueto said.
A DNAinfo New York investigation published Monday revealed that the program Cueto cited has struggled to get off the ground, suffering from communication issues between City Hall, city agencies and prosecutors.
A representative of Samaritan Village did not return requests for comment.
