A 33-year-old Laurelton man was stabbed to death just steps from his own home Sunday night, and police say no one has been arrested in the case. Jose Scott was stabbed multiple times on Merrick Boulevard near 221st Street at about 9:45 p.m., according to police.
Medics rushed Scott to Jamaica Hospital, but he could not be saved, as reported by the New York Daily News. The attack happened outside 220-20 Merrick Boulevard, a stretch of the busy Southeast Queens commercial corridor, according to LiveUAmap. That location falls within the territory of the NYPD's 116th Precinct, the command now responsible for investigating the killing.
No suspect has been publicly named, and detectives have not disclosed a motive for the attack. The Daily News reported that Scott was 33 years old and lived nearby, in Laurelton, at the time of his death.
A New Precinct Faces an Early Test
The 116th Precinct is only about a year and a half old. The NYPD opened the $105 million, 48,400-square-foot station house on North Conduit Avenue in Rosedale in December 2024, carving the command out of the 105th and 113th Precincts to serve Laurelton, Rosedale, Springfield Gardens, and Brookville, according to NYC.gov.
Its opening capped a roughly 40-year community push for a dedicated precinct in far Southeast Queens, where residents had long complained about slow emergency response times under the sprawling 105th Precinct. The Queens Daily Eagle noted that the 116th became the first entirely new NYPD precinct command established in the city in more than a decade, following the creation of Staten Island's 121st Precinct back in 2013. Scott's killing now stands as an early, unresolved case for the young command to solve.
Treated at South Queens' Only Level 1 Trauma Center
Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where medics brought Scott, is designated by the American College of Surgeons as the only Level 1 Trauma Center in South Queens, per the hospital's own newsletter. Level 1 centers are equipped to provide round-the-clock, immediate care for the most severe penetrating injuries.
The hospital also runs one of the busiest emergency departments in the five boroughs, logging more than 120,000 emergency room visits a year as the primary safety-net hospital for Southeast Queens, according to a Medisys Careers job listing for the facility's ER staff. It's the same hospital that treated three people after a separate, non-fatal Laurelton stabbing over a dog back in April.
What Charges Could Look Like
New York law treats intentional killings as Murder in the Second Degree under Penal Law § 125.25, a Class A-I felony carrying a mandatory minimum of 15 to 25 years to life in state prison, court records show. If investigators instead determine that an assailant meant only to cause serious injury rather than death, the case could instead be charged as Manslaughter in the First Degree under Penal Law § 125.20, a Class B felony carrying up to 25 years, according to the law firm Epstein & Conroy. No charges have been filed, and it remains unclear which direction the investigation may take.
Anyone with information about the stabbing is asked to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS, or 1-888-57-PISTA for Spanish speakers. Tips that lead to an arrest and indictment can earn a reward of up to $3,500, and all calls remain confidential. Since it was founded in 1983, the Crime Stoppers program has helped solve more than 5,600 violent crimes citywide, including nearly 1,600 murders and attempted murders, according to the New York City Police Foundation.
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