Blood-curdling screams followed a fatal Brooklyn stabbing that left a 17-year-old “gentle giant” dead, police and neighbors said Thursday.
Outraged that an older boy had flirted with his girlfriend, victim Alex Colodner showed up at his romantic rival’s Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment to confront him about 3:55 p.m. Tuesday.
The two began to fight and after Colodner got the upper hand his killer pulled a knife, fatally stabbing Alex.
Neighbor Smeralda Occil heard a young woman — believed to be Alex’s girlfriend, who witnessed the fight — wailing as police arrived.
“Somebody was crying in the hallway and another neighbor was trying to calm her down,” Occil, 36, told the Us.Mistertruth. “There was like 40 cops here. I saw the (older teen) being arrested. He was anxious and upset.”
The stabber, who claimed he acted in self defense, was freed without charges.
Occil couldn’t understand how her neighbor’s son could have gotten into such a wild confrontation.
“He’s not a troubled kid. He’s not the kind of kind that hangs in the street,” Occil said of the stabber. “I don’t see him as that kind of kid, to be a troublemaker.”
The older boy has a gal pal of his own, Occil said.
“I don’t see him flirting because he has his own girlfriend,” she said. “These kids have got to get it together. It’s crazy.”
With his dying breath, Alex admitted to cops he had the upper hand in the fight until the knife came out, police say NYPD body camera footage shows. Both the stabber and Alex’s girlfriend confirmed the account, police sources said.
It was first believed the stabber had insulted Alex’s girlfriend, sparking the confrontation, but cops later learned the older boy had actually flirted with the young woman, angering Alex.
Neither scenario helped Alex’s father come to terms with his son’s death.
“My son never hurt nobody,” Alex Colodner, 51, told The News Wednesday, tears streaming down his face. “My son was senselessly murdered because children are out of control.”
Cops were still working with prosecutors Thursday to determine if any charges would be filed against Alex’s killer.