Three people were slashed and stabbed, one fatally, during a bloody clash at a Queens corner early Saturday, cops said.
A 24-year-old man and two 25-year-old men got into a violent brawl near the corner of Sutphin Blvd. and 112th Ave. in South Jamaica around 1:50 a.m., according to police.
When cops arrived at the scene, the 24-year-old victim had been slashed in the stomach, police said. The two 25-year-old victims were both stabbed — one on his left side, the other in the chest.
All three were rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where the victim stabbed in the chest died — and was later identified as Jonathan McFarlane.
McFarlane lived about a 10-minute walk for where he died, according to police.
No arrests have been made, police said.
Cops on Saturday were scouring the area looking for surveillance footage that could help them with their investigation.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Blood is seen on a box of Fourth of July fireworks on the corner of Sutphin Blvd. and 112th Ave. in South Jamaica, where three people were stabbed early Saturday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Residents of 112th St., which remained littered with remnants of spent fireworks on Saturday, were baffled that such an act of violence could have taken place in an area they said was typically quiet and peaceful.
Most had gone to sleep by the time of the fatal brawl.
“Fireworks, lot of fireworks. That’s all we heard,” said a 63-year-old woman who lives in a house on the block. “There was a lot of these guys down here last night,” she said. “They was competing with each other. You know, who could shoot the biggest firework out. There was at least 50 people on this block. Everybody was having fun. We figured everybody was doing good. We wake up and somebody got killed. Crazy.”
The woman, who did not want to give her name for fear of retaliation, said she went to bed around one in the morning. “I thought they were having fun. But the fun do come to tragic, you know. That’s why I don’t like a crowd. I do not like a crowd. They come out nice and then sooner or later they start drinking and everything changes. You know when you start drinking your attitudes change.”
“Fourth of July people are gonna drink and smoke,” she added.
She doubted the brawlers lived on the block, which is normally quiet. “There are 10 houses on this block and us 10 know each other,” she said.
Other block residents were just as stunned by the violence.
“I woke up this morning and watched it on the news and I saw my car on the news,” said a 41-year-old man who has lived on the block for 14 years. “Imagine watching TV and seeing your vehicle.”
“I thought, ‘What the hell.’ Then when I look outside I saw sirens, tape out there. The officers told me I couldn’t come outside because of the investigation or whatever. This was this morning like 5:30,” the man said about waking up to find his block was a crime scene.
“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” he said.
He agreed with the other residents who characterized the violence as unusual.
“I was kind of upset to hear the news calling this neighborhood dangerous because I don’t find it that way,” he said. “We don’t have any issues. People mind their business and stuff. I got three kids here they don’t have any problems.”
The man said he also thought the doomed revelers weren’t from the area. “Usually when you don’t live someplace that’s where you go and you make a mess. People who live here doesn’t do that.”
“For the most part it’s pretty quiet. We usually have family-oriented cookouts, backyard things. Some people play music, especially on the 4th of July,” a 41-year-old man who also lives on the block said. “But nobody really would’ve expected a stabbing. Those type of things haven’t happened in this neighborhood for years.”
Originally Published: July 5, 2025 at 1:22 PM EDT
