Police said Friday they have arrested a man who fatally stabbed a 30-year-old fitness enthusiast during a nighttime brawl in downtown Brooklyn.
Tristan Matthews, 31, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of the Sept. 15 murder and charged with manslaughter, gang assault and weapons possession.
He is accused of stabbing Joshua Wahab in the left side of his torso with a knife around 12:30 a.m. on Nostrand Avenue near Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Wahab, who had recently started working two jobs, was killed during an argument with four or five men outside a deli about a mile from his home, police and relatives said.
Paramedics rushed him to Kings County Hospital, but doctors were unable to save him.
The deadly fight left the sidewalk covered in blood.
“Hey, I just saw that blood and I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it,” one nearby resident, who declined to give his name, told the Daily News at the time. “I walk by here all the time. It’s a busy area, but I’ve never seen anyone get stabbed and have that much blood. It’s evil.”
Nicholas Williams/New York Daily News
The deadly fight left the sidewalk covered in blood. (Nicholas Williams, New York Daily News)
Matthews lives three blocks from where the stabbing happened. He was ordered held without bail during a brief arraignment Thursday. It was not immediately clear what sparked the deadly fight. It was also unclear how police identified Matthews as a suspect.
Heartbroken family members say Wahab, 30, started working at both a gym and a Whole Foods Market just a week before his murder, and had adopted a lifestyle focused on health and fitness.
“He had worked hard all week and just wanted to relax and enjoy the night,” his sister Aziza Wahab, 45, told the newspaper about the night he was killed. “He has been interested in fitness since high school and was passionate about staying healthy.”
Joshua had cooked and eaten before leaving the house he shared with his mother on Sunday. He told his mother he would return soon, his sister said.
“He didn’t say where exactly he was going, but he promised he would be back,” she said.
Aziza said her brother would have gladly helped the killer.
“If (the stabber) wanted food, my brother would feed him,” she said. “If you needed help, my brother would help in any way he could. Violence was never his goal.”
