Mistaken gang identity led to NYC stab slay of SUNY college student Denzel Bimpey: NYPD

Denzel Bimpey and his college buddies were mistaken for rival gang members when he was stabbed to death on a Manhattan street after getting off a bus during the last leg of his winter break trip home for the holidays, police said Tuesday.

The 18-year-old freshman and his friends had just ended a five-hour ride from their upstate school when they clashed with another group of college students, one of whom plunged a knife into Bimpey’s chest, cops said.

There have been no arrests.

Both groups had been on the bus for the ride from Syracuse to New York City, but their beef did not turn violent until they got off the bus in the Flatiron District shortly after 10:30 p.m. Friday, officials said.

“While they’re in Syracuse, the two groups are involved in a verbal dispute where the perpetrator group starts talking some gang language asking our victim’s group, ‘What block are you from?’ and they respond, ‘We’re not in a gang,’” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny recounted in a Tuesday media briefing.

Passengers and the bus driver told cops there was no spat on the bus, but as riders began retrieving their luggage, a fight immediately broke out between the two groups, Kenny said.

“At this time, our victim attempts to grab the male who winds up stabbing him in a bear hug to keep from getting stabbed,” Kenny said. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out and he gets stabbed three times.”

Bimpey and his friends ran down the block with the other college kids in pursuit, according to the chief. When the 18-year-old collapsed along Park Ave. South, the other group stopped chasing him, ran to a black SUV and took off.

Bimpey had a pulse on the scene, where cops found a knife and box cutter type of weapon, Kenny said. He had puncture wounds to his chest that were 7 to 8 inches deep, a puncture wound in his right shoulder and a slash to his forearm.

Bimpey was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.

Cops said the victim and his friends had no prior arrests and did not appear to be in a gang. Bimpey and his friends were from the Bronx. The other group was from Harlem.

“There is a gang up there called Six Block that is feuding with Nine Block,” Kenny said of the Harlem feud. “We believe that our victim group may have been mistaken as Nine Block members.”

Kenny said cops did a deep dive on social media and determined that the group that attacked Bimpey and his friends went to Onondaga Community College, about 10 minutes from SUNY Morrisville, where Bimpey was a student. They got on the bus in Syracuse at the same time the guys from the community college got on, he said

“This is a common transportation hub where students catch buses, the buses stop along the way coming down south,” he noted.

But social media pages connected to Bimpey and his friends make reference to one of the gangs Kenny mentioned. Bimpey had the words “9blockTrooper” listed on his Instagram bio, and one of his close friends, in an Instagram memorial post, signs off with a hashtag #9blocktrooper.

“We sendin shots behind every tear we shed,” the friend’s post said.

Bimpey’s family insisted that he was a clean-cut college kid.

“He wasn’t in any gang,” a woman who identified herself at Bimpey’s sister said Tuesday. “We don’t live in Harlem.”

Friends and family described Bimpey as homesick and eager to get back to the Bronx for some of his mother’s home cooking.

Classmate Khali Serranna, 19, a freshman from Brooklyn, said her last words to her friend were “Be safe.”

“He was the last person that I saw before I left. I was like, ‘Be safe. I’ll see you next semester.” Serranna recalled. “And he said, ‘Yeah, see you next semester. Be safe, too.’ And then I get that call the next day.”

She couldn’t believe the news.

“I literally just saw him the day before,” Serranna said. “That morning I saw an article about him and I’m like, ‘Oh, no.’ When I saw the picture I was like, ‘Damn, that’s him.’ I started to cry.”

She said she had a connection with Bimpey because they were both city kids adjusting to the rural campus.

“He was like, ‘This is so different. There’s really nothing to do.’ It was a big adjustment for all of us. We’re in the middle of nowhere. Too many cows. You have to drive everywhere. You can’t walk,” the student said.

College student fatally stabbed in NYC getting off bus home for Christmas

“Our whole friend group got so close so quick. Most of them are city kids,” she added. “We were both in our first semester. I met him through mutual friends. He would always laugh. If he was laughing, we would always laugh because he had a crazy laugh. It was hilarious.”

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Serranna said her mother picked her up from school and drove her home to Brooklyn on Thursday. Bimpey waited another day before getting on the bus.

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“He was excited to go back home,” she said. “He didn’t deserve that. He was such a good guy. It’s shocking because we just got home. He didn’t even make it home yet.”