"He Looked Like A Normal Guy To Me"

"STATEN ISLAND, NY - A woman and two children were slashed with a knife in their Staten Island townhouse on Sunday night, the police said. Officers later found the woman’s companion in the home with a fatal knife wound.

"The woman, 34, and an 18-month-old boy were outside the townhouse, at 110 Hempstead Avenue in Midland Beach, when officers arrived about 7:40 p.m.

"The woman said that they had been attacked by her companion, a 40-year-old man, who was still in the house with her 3-year-old daughter.

"After unsuccessfully trying to communicate with the man, the police entered the house and found him in the kitchen with a slash wound.

"The girl was in a third-floor bedroom.

"The police did not release the names of the victims or the suspect.

"All the victims were slashed in the neck. The woman and the two children were reported in serious condition at Staten Island University Hospital, the police said.

"The man was pronounced dead around 9 p.m. at the same hospital.

"A neighbor, Michael Bronshteyn, 47, said his wife saw the woman cradling the boy on the front steps of the townhouse. Both were covered in blood, he said, and the woman was screaming that her daughter remained in the house.

"Mr. Bronshteyn said the man, woman and children had lived in the neighborhood, which he described as mostly Russian, for one to two years. He had seen the man around the house, trimming the bushes, walking with the children and holding hands with the woman on different occasions.

"`He looked like a normal guy to me,` Mr. Bronshteyn said."

From The New York Times...