Arrest made in fatal Marble Hill stabbing

Officers of the 50th Precinct have arrested a man they say is responsible for the fatal stabbing of a Marble Hill man earlier this month.

Bryant Gonzalez, 36, of the Bronx was arrested on Sept. 26 and charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.

The victim of the attack was 44-year-old Juan Martinez, who on the evening of Sept. 12, was attacked in front of 130 W. 228th St. in Marble Hill while walking outside his apartment with his mom and 5-year-old niece.

Witnesses say a man, with a woman, accused Martinez of hurting his son at nearby John F. Kennedy High School campus. Martinez told the man he had nothing to do with the alleged incident, but was attacked nonetheless, witnesses said.

“The man opened the door and stabbed the guy three or four times,” a witness told The Riverdale Press the day after the homicide. “And then they ran” and went.

The witness claimed it was only the man who stabbed Martinez. However, Martinez’s uncle, James Jordan, heard from family that the woman stabbed Martinez in the back in addition to the man stabbing him in the neck.

Nonetheless, when Martinez was transported by EMS to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, he was pronounced dead. When The Press spoke to Martinez’s father, George Laboy, he bemoaned the lack of police presence and the EMS’ response to his son’s stabbing. He compared his son’s killer’s actions to that of a vigilante.

“Whatever the situation was, for somebody to take the law into their own hands and not seek other means is unjustifiable,” Laboy told The Press.

With Gonzalez’s arrest, it is likely that the woman he was with is also being sought out to be arrested and charged with crimes relating to the homicide. Martinez death marks the fourth homicide of the year in greater Riverdale, twice as many by September 2022.

Martinez’s sister Jalisa Laboy and his family have created a Go Fund Me for Martinez that currently has raised $200.

“My brother was brutally murdered in front of our mother and niece in front of a place we used to call home,” Jalisa stated. “My brother was very intelligent, had a very big heart and always wanted the best interest of those he cared about. My brother’s goal was to move us out because it was never safe. He would always tell his father George Laboy that he promised to move us out of the projects and never look back. We would like to fulfill his wish to help us move his family out of where his life was taken.

The fundraiser can be accessed at gofundme.com/f/help-us-fulfill-juans-dream