WAS STABBING IN DOWNTOWN CITY'S FIRST 2021 HOMICIDE?

 

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

A 37-year-old stabbing victim is said to be recovering at a local hospital following his pre-dawn stabbing Tuesday in the heart of the city and the Brownsville Police Department is asking anyone with any information to identify his attacker.

But rumors persist based on conversations with first responders and police that the multilpy-stabbed victim has died. Also, some have stated that there were at least two assailants who stabbed him as many as eight times.

According to a witness who came upon the victim at about 5:30 a.m.Tuesday said the man had been stabbed between Market Square and businesses along the walkway on the south side and had managed to drag himself from the area, down Adams Street, and then collapsed near by the Multi-Modal Transportation Station (bus station) near the corner of Adams and 13th Street a block away.u

On Tuesday morning, police officers had strung crime scene tape along the bloody trail from the south side of the main market square building and at the bus station. Yellow markers indicated where small pools of blood had collected along his course ntoward the terminal.

The police request to the public for information to identify the assailants did not include any description of he suspects, a fact questioned by some local business owners. 

"What about all the money the city spent on the surveillance cameras?," asked one. "They're supposed to cover the downtown area. What happened? How come we don't have pictures of the suspect so people can see if they recognize him. Were the cameras even working?"

But at least one unconfirmed source claimed that police had one suspect in custody and were seeking hiscompanion.

On August 2018, the Brownsville city commissioners voted to approve the purchase of security cameras at the cost of $480,000. At the time Brownsville public officials say the move is necessary to improve safety in downtown Brownsville. A total of 40 cameras were installed throughout six blocks in the downtown area.

The witness quoted above said that the victim apparently did not know that there was a police substation (unmanned) in the same block or that  there was a fire station less than one block from the stabbing scene.

"It took a long time for police to show up," he said. "He wasn't from here because he could have gone to the fire department and gotten help there."