A man believed to be in his 20s died Monday after being stabbed in the back during an argument near Walton Avenue and East Fordham Road in Fordham, the Bronx, collapsing outside a nearby training center as a worker rushed to hold pressure on his wound until paramedics arrived. He did not survive.
The attack happened just before 10:30 a.m. Monday, according to amNY, when 46th Precinct officers responded to a 911 call reporting a man stabbed near Walton Avenue and East Fordham Road. Police found the victim with a stab wound in his back; eyewitnesses told officers two men had been arguing just before the attack.
Michelle Dawkins, who works at the nearby ABC Training Center, saw the victim run down the block before he collapsed outside an entranceway. The vocational school, which is licensed by the New York State Department of Education, operates at 50 East Fordham Road with its main entrance on Walton Avenue — directly at the intersection where the stabbing unfolded, according to ABC Training Center. Dawkins applied pressure to his back until an ambulance reached the scene, the outlet reported.
His Final Words
As Dawkins tried to keep him conscious, the victim told her, “Mami, don’t let me go.” When asked whether he knew who had stabbed him, he said that he did, per the same account. EMS transported him to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police have not released his identity pending family notification.
St. Barnabas Hospital, on Third Avenue in the Belmont section of the Bronx, is a state-designated Level II Trauma Center and the oldest continuously operating healthcare facility in New York City, having been established in 1866, according to SBH Health System. The hospital serves as a primary acute care facility for the West Bronx and has treated victims from several recent stabbings in the area.
Suspect Fled North on Morris Avenue
Police described the suspected killer as a man believed to be in his 20s who had argued with the victim moments before the killing. He was last seen wearing all black and fled northbound on Morris Avenue on foot, per the outlet’s report. No arrests have been made, and the investigation remains ongoing.
The stabbing landed on a block already under scrutiny. Walton Avenue was named among five pilot blocks in the 46th Precinct under the Mayor’s Office’s Every Block Counts violence-prevention initiative, a multi-agency effort targeting hyper-local crime hotspots, Hoodline previously reported. East Fordham Road itself is one of the Bronx’s busiest commercial corridors, drawing roughly 80,000 daily pedestrians, which prompted the Fordham Road Business Improvement District to launch a Patrol Ambassadors program staffing licensed security guards along the strip, according to the Bronx Times.
A Precinct Bucking the Citywide Trend
The killing adds to a troubling pattern in the 46th Precinct, which commands public safety across 1.1 square miles of the West Bronx covering Fordham, University Heights, Morris Heights, and Mount Hope, Hoodline has reported. NYPD CompStat data through late September showed 11 murders in the precinct so far this year, up 83.3% from six during the same period in 2025, while felony assault reports climbed 24.6% to 815 cases.
That spike stands in stark contrast to the citywide picture. New York City recorded 122 murders in the first half of 2026, down 24.7% from 162 during the same stretch in 2025 and marking the lowest midyear homicide total in recorded city history, according to FOX 5 New York. Even so, a citywide crime analysis found that reported felony assaults have risen for a sixth consecutive year even as homicides and shootings reached historic lows, per the State of Crime in New York City report.
Monday’s stabbing echoes a string of recent knife attacks across the borough. Just days earlier, on September 25, a similar argument on Prospect Avenue escalated into a stabbing that sent another man to St. Barnabas Hospital, with police still searching for a suspect in that case as well. A September stabbing tied to an argument at a Morris Heights deli also left a victim in critical condition, and a 61-year-old man was attacked near the Bronx Terminal Market the same month after another verbal dispute turned violent.
How to Submit a Tip
Anyone with information is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS, or the Spanish-language line at 888-57-PISTA. Tips can also be submitted online or through @NYPDTips, and all calls and messages are kept confidential.
