A burglar was stabbed to death with his own knife by the tenant he was trying to rob after being caught breaking into a Brooklyn apartment, the Daily News has learned.
The tenant, who was stabbed in the neck during the clash, is not expected to be charged because he acted in self defense, law enforcement sources said.
Dan Costume, a 34-year-old released from prison in 2024, had apparently taken advantage of an unlocked door to break into a stranger’s Flatbush apartment late Friday night, according to law enforcement sources and the tenant who killed him. But the apartment wasn’t unoccupied.
The 45-year-old tenant, speaking to the Daily News in Spanish, said he had just come home from playing soccer. His wife had left their apartment on Avenue D near E. 31st St. to run an errand, leaving the door unlocked. When the tenant came out of the bathroom, he caught the stranger red-handed, stealing two cell phones, a laptop and other belongings, the tenant says.
Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News
The occupant of an apartment on Avenue D in Flatbush shows injuries suffered after he confronted a burglar in his home on Friday night. (Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News)
“He was in shock that there was a random person in his house,” a relative of the tenant said in English as she spoke to the tenant in Spanish, relaying his account.
The tenant wrapped his arms around the intruder from behind to try to get him to drop the stolen goods, the relative said.
“They started battling between each other,” the relative said.
Costume bit the tenant’s hands and cheek during the struggle, then whipped a knife out of his pocket and stabbed the tenant in the back of the neck, the tenant said.
Courtesy of family
Dan Costume was fatally stabbed in an apartment on Avenue D near E. 31st St. in Flatbush late Friday. (Courtesy of family)
The tenant managed to disarm Costume and stab him in his thigh and lower back with the crook’s own knife, sources said. A bruise and teeth marks were still visible on the tenant’s cheek days later and he needed medical staples to close two gashes to his neck and the back of his head.
“He was acting in self-defense,” the relative said. “Everything happened so fast.”
The tenant shoved the crook out of the apartment and into the hallway. The burglar fled down the hallway and stairwell of the building, gushing blood as he dropped the stolen goods. After Costume collapsed outside the building, medics rushed him to Kings County Hospital, where he died. The tenant was treated at the same hospital and released.
After reviewing the circumstances of the case, prosecutors decided not to charge the tenant.
Costume’s father and sister told The News they haven’t seen much of him since he left their home when he was 18. He was in and out of the criminal justice system and police had come looking for him several times before they knocked on the door Saturday to notify the family of his death, they said.
Costume was conditionally released from prison on parole in October 2024 after serving a one-and-a-half to three-year sentence for a Brooklyn attempted burglary conviction, public records show.
The tenant who killed Costume during the struggle saw surveillance footage that shows Costume getting into the building through a back door near where the garbage is kept.
“He feels bad, first of all, because he didn’t expect that to happen to the guy” the tenant’s relative said.
The tenant is still recovering from the wounds he suffered during the clash.
“He has a lot of pain,” his relative said.
