A 71-year-old man found fatally stabbed by firefighters battling a blaze at his Bronx apartment was killed by his much younger roommate, who then started the fire, police said Monday.
Xavier Almonte, 28, who has a psychiatric history, has been arrested for murder, manslaughter and arson for allegedly killing Curtis Austin.
Firefighters found Austin on the second floor of a two-story home on Manor Ave. near Westchester Ave. in Soundview about 2:15 p.m. Saturday. He had been stabbed three times in the neck.
Medics rushed the victim to Jacobi Medical Center but he couldn’t be saved.
He seemed like a gentle man,” next-door neighbor Anthony Jenkins said. “He was always out there [on his stoop] smoking cigarettes.”
It took 60 firefighters a half hour to extinguish the blaze, which was on the second floor.
It wasn’t clear what sparked the fatal attack, police said. Almonte has no prior arrest record.
“I never heard arguing or fighting,” Jenkins said.
Carol Li, a realtor who listed the property for sale in February, described the victim as a calm man who rented the second-floor unit.
“He was quiet, a very quiet person,” said Li.
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