A man sleeping on the street in Times Square cops say was stabbed to death by a teen motivated by a TikTok trend was a “wanderer” just passing through the city, his devastated family says.
Leonidas Baez was slain outside Burger & Lobster, a restaurant on W. 43rd St. near Seventh Ave., about 11:30 p.m. Monday. A 17-year-old boy who told cops he was following a “mess-with-a-crackhead” TikTok trend when he antagonized the sleeping stranger, according to police sources, was arrested for his murder Thursday.
But while awaiting his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Thursday, the suspect shouted at reporters that he acted in “self-defense” after the victim hit him in the face.
“He punched me first — so I stabbed him,” he told the Daily News exclusively. He also denied involvement in the TikTok trend.
“I’m not part of it, I’m just hanging out,” he said.
“Why? What was the point?” the victim’s sister, who declined to give her name, said of the slaying. “Were you that bored that you had to bother somebody? You getting brownie points to dehumanize somebody?”
“He was such a loving person,” she said of her free-spirited brother. “He was loved by everybody.”
Baez, was confronted by the stabber and two accomplices, according to police sources. As a quarrel escalated, the teen allegedly stabbed the Baez in the face, torso and back, cops said.
Baez’s sister described her brother as “a traveler” who wandered up and down the East Coast, from Florida to his home state of Massachusetts, where his two children live with their mother.
“He just wanted to travel the world and experience life,” the sister said. “He rode a bike all the way down to Florida. He came back on a bike. He walked, hiked, took trains. That’s the type of life that he had his mind set on.”
Baez was heading south after visiting his family in Massachusetts when he decided to stop in Manhattan, his sister said.
“He was mostly attracted [to New York City] because there’s just always something to do,” the sister said. “There’s always sightseeing. He was attracted to the ongoing things out there.”
Medics rushed Baez to Bellevue Hospital but he could not be saved.
The three suspects ran off east on W. 43rd St. toward Bryant Park. The teen, whose name was not released by cops because he is underage, was stopped by cops for jumping a turnstile at the Stillwell Ave. station in Coney Island, Brooklyn, just after midnight Thursday. Cops quickly realized he was wanted for the Times Square stabbing.
The teen told cops he started antagonizing the sleeping victim, a stranger to him, as part of a viral “mess-with-a-crackhead” TikTok trend, according to police sources.
As the suspect’s murder arraignment was pending in Manhattan Criminal Court, his two accomplices were still being sought.
The victim’s sister said her brother favored populated areas to stay in. She described him as smart, presentable and “a great dad.” He worked odd jobs to fund his lifestyle, including driving for Uber and DoorDash.
“He always had work,” his sister said. “He always had money in his pocket.”
He enjoyed not having a permanent home.
“That’s the lifestyle he chose to live. He loved his life,” the sister said. “He was always schooling you on something. Survival skills are at a thousand — so if the apocalypse happened, that’s who I’m following.”
“He was smart,” she added. “He loved to draw, study history. He loved to read. Politics, things that are going on in other countries, pretty much just freaking everything.
Baez last spoke to his sister over Facebook Messenger in early April.
“He was perfectly fine,” she said of the conversation. “He was always happy. He didn’t let life get to him.”
The sister said she would sometimes try and egg on her brother into living a more conventional life, but there was no talking him out of his carefree lifestyle.
“I’d be like ‘Why are you living like that?’ And he’d usually just say, ‘Life is hard,’ and ‘Look at everything that’s going on in life, everything is expensive,’” she said. “He was like, ‘Why wouldn’t I, if I can control my life how I want it instead of being controlled by somebody else?’”
Baez was heading toward Florida, from where he had planned to trek west on a cross-country adventure to California, his sister said.
“It sucks,” she said. “It’s kind of always gonna be a question of why? Someone that you don’t even know, someone that you see is minding his own business. Like what the hell is the purpose of bothering somebody like that, just to stab him?”
With Rocco Parascandola and Thomas Tracy
