Man, 80, stabbed to death by neighbor he allowed to stay in his Washington Heights apartment: NYPD

An 80-year-old man was stabbed to death early Monday by a neighbor he kindly took into his home after the suspect was kicked out by his own mother, police and a relative of the victim said.

Lev Vayner was found dead with stab wounds to his neck and abdomen inside his apartment on Overlook Terrace near W. 184th St. in Washington Heights about 3:15 a.m., cops said.

Police arrested 45-year-old neighbor Alon Riabichev, charging him with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

Riabichev called 911 after stabbing Vayner, later telling police he was having a mental breakdown when he attacked the older man, ABC7 New York reported.

The suspect was sitting in the kitchen when cops arrived, a knife on the dining table, according to the station.

Neighbors told the Daily News that Riabichev’s mother, who lives in an apartment on the building’s fourth floor, had recently kicked her son out and he’d been loitering in the building for days since.

“The whole building felt bad for this guy because we all knew him and when stuff started going down with his mom, we had to walk by him every day,” said 40-year-old Moses Waterland, who lives in the building.

“He was going through it. He was sliding down pretty fast.”

A relative of Vayner’s told ABC7 New York that the victim beginning on Thursday allowed the suspect to stay in the apartment the victim shared with his daughter.

“He had a very intense gaze. I’m a psychiatrist, I can tell. Very intense gaze, you could tell he’s not doing well,” the victim’s nephew said of the suspect, speaking to ABC7 New York.

“I spoke to [Vayner’s daughter] on the phone. I said to her, ‘This is bad idea. You should make a referral to a shelter.’”

“I even suggested that we meet with the (suspect’s) mother,” he added.

Vayner had returned home from a short stay in the hospital shortly before he was killed, his neighbor said. Neighbors believe the suspect was crashing with the victim.

“The older man had been to the hospital two days ago. And to have this happen when he comes back,” said Waterland. “I can’t believe it. I’ve known that guy for years.”

“He’s a very generous guy. He was always offering me cigarettes and wanting to tell me about his time in the Russian army.”

The discovery followed a bloody attack in Midtown that left a 23-year-old man dead only hours earlier.

That victim was stabbed multiple times in the back and right thigh at W. 49th St. and Seventh Ave., four blocks north of Times Square, about 1:05 a.m., cops said. Medics rushed the victim to Bellevue Hospital, where he died.

No arrests have been made in that slaying.