By Carol Tannenhauser
A man was stabbed to death in the stairwell of 316 W. 97th Street on Wednesday at around 7:14 p.m., and a suspect was taken into custody at the scene, a police spokesperson told the Rag.
When police answered a 911 call about an assault taking place inside the W. 97th Street building, they found “an unidentified man, unconscious and unresponsive, with a stab wound in his torso. EMS responded and transported the victim to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.” Michael Perkins, 60, of the same address, was taken into custody.
On Thursday, February 9 at 5 a.m., Perkins was charged with murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon.
This is horrible.
What is this building anyway? It says it hosts a hotel and residential apartments.
It’s an SRO—single room occupancy. Nearly all men.
It’s some sort of shelter. Always problems. Police constantly at this address. There are two on this block alone, with plans to open another between west end and Broadway. I was outside last night and witnessed the entire response. Police were phenomenal. Seemed like the entire 24 precinct showed up. Had the guy in custody and away from the scene very quickly. Poor victim was obviously deceased when they rushed him to the ambulance.
Having lived in 755 West End Ave from 1988 to 2003 (15 years), I am well aware of the ongoing issues, ambulances, police visits, internal issues, that occurred at the Piedmont quite regularly. I am not surprised to hear of this stabbing. It’s not out of the blue! If you check the police blotter over the years, this is just another infuriating event! Keep it in perspective !
“Another infuriating event! Keep it in perspective!”?. Are you kidding? Could anyone have been more callous about a murder than you? A man is dead! Does that not have any meaning to you? That’s really scary.
A man died, Steve.
Exactly. Violent death in our neighborhood.
Keep it in perspective?
I assume that means don’t extrapolate this not-so-random incident into an indictment of every politician and judge currently in office who has ever released anyone on bail (or without bail) who has gone on to commit another crime which would never have happened if we had a Republican governor and mayor because when that was the case, there was no crime in New York.
No crime in New York? I’m 90 and I’ve never seen such a time. I read statistics recently that showed that Republican ruled states actually have higher crime rates than Democratic ruled states. Not every tragedy needs to be turned into an outlet for anyone’s political ideology.
This building has assisted living (as a shelter from what I understand) and it is well known to have dangerous situations constantly. Ask anyone on the block. What’s most upsetting is the problems are well known to the our local elected officials who have done nothing about it.
The NYPD is constantly called to the building. There is another shelter on the same block and Gale Brewer and the CB7 all thought it was a good idea to allow ANOTHER assisted housing to be add next year, with formerly incarcerated individuals, about 6 buildings away from this one – on the same immediate block! I feel terrible for any residents on 97th. ASK any resident there and they will tell you. Why is it right to put 3 assisted housing/shelters all on one block?!!! I hope that some of the residents on 97th have had enough and call Gale Brewer and CB7 to do something about it.
Gale Brewer has all the energy to march to the city administration to ban background checks. But once it comes to the shelters – she says there’s nothing she can do.
It’s a horrible place. Supposed to be a “hotel” mostly for foreign groups including student athletic groups that come by bus but it’s always looked like shady people come and go out of there. Drugs, etc seen on street. It was scary to park there so we stopped parking on 97th from there to Riverside.
Poor man. So sorry. But glad that at least the police were right on it and caught the perp.
The West 90s seems to be the city’s favorite dumping ground for criminals, vagrants and psychotics. When will it stop?
When people take the time to speak up and confront our local elected officials – Shaun Abreu, Gale Brewer, Danny O’Donnell, Brad Hoylman. IT MATTERS.
People in office now never take a stand – meaning they are super progressive, forgive the criminals and dump them into the West 90’s because no one fights back. They just accept it. We have the worst community board who welcomed with open arms another housing to be put in on the same block. Why ALLOW another possible troublesome housing ON THE SAME BLOCK, West 97th??? – let alone in the West 90’s.
Please people, speak up for these 10 blocks and fight this or it will continue to get worse. I try my best.
These shelters should not be located in high density neighborhoods. They should be given a choice – there are plenty of jobs that need to be done in this city – either they are capable of working and doing one of those jobs, or they can be moved to a residence in a much lower density area that is cheaper and where they are at lower risk of doing harm to others.
“Michael Perkins, a 60-year-old resident of 316 West 97th Street, has been arrested and charged with was subsequently taken into custody from the scene.
Pursuant to an ongoing investigation, the following individual has been arrested and charged with murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon.
Perkins has served three prison terms for robbery, according to the Daily News.”
I live in the neighborhood, and know the block. There are also SRO type shelters on 98th and 100th very close by. When we residents question the safety of these places, the usual answer is that they are operated by very reputable and responsible social service agencies that take FULL responsibility. Why are the news reports not saying who administers this building?
Good question. Does anyone know the name of the Social Services agency that supposedly overseas/services the building(s)?