Suspect in fatal stab of 83-year-old Brooklyn neighbor knifed another man at random in 2020: ‘He could have killed me that day’

A Brooklyn nurse is grateful he survived a random knife attack three years ago from Joevani Vale, the suspect wanted in the stabbing death of a defenseless elderly man trapped in a Brooklyn elevator.

Isaac Alvarez, 39, told the Daily News he ran across Vale on Sept. 12, 2020, and didn’t realize he’d been stabbed in the back by the stranger until the unhinged exchange was over.

“He could’ve killed me that day,” Alvarez said Monday. “A little deeper — luckily it didn’t hit a lung.”

Vale, 26, is now suspected of knifing his neighbor, Ramon “Flaco” Cintron, 83, to death in the elevator of their apartment building in the Wyckoff Gardens NYCHA development on Nevins St. in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, on Saturday.

Alvarez sees Cintron’s slaying as evidence Vale slipped through the cracks and didn’t get the help he needed.

“You’re letting someone like that out on the streets,” he said. “What happened to me was not proof enough? I don’t understand.”

Saturday’s slaying came after Cintron randomly attacked two women on the street nearby, cops say, punching one and slashing the other.

Security video cops recovered from the elevator shows a woman leave right before Vale gets on followed by Cintron, according to police sources. Vale pushes a button and the two briefly converse.

Vale attacked without warning 38 seconds after the elevator doors closed, stabbing the octogenarian at least a dozen times, the sources said. The video cut off as the lethal attack continued.

“I’m not surprised as far as him doing something like that because look what he did to me,” Alvarez said. “An older person like that really can’t defend themselves. It’s just crazy.”

Cintron’s death was the tragic culmination of a 90-minute spree of violence. Cops say Vale punched one woman, 47, in the shoulder and slashed another, 31, in the right thigh in separate attacks a few blocks away from the killing.

Vale was arrested on felony assault charges after stabbing Alvarez and his case was sent to Mental Health Court with the victim’s blessing, according to a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.

Vale agreed to complete a psychiatric program to avoid a three-year prison sentence. After 13 months his felony charge was dismissed in April 2022 and he got a conditional discharge for misdemeanor assault.

Alvarez was working as a dietary aide at the time and was on his way to work, walking along President St. near Nevins St. in Gowanus when he came across Vale.

“I was supposed to go straight and for whatever reason I made a left,” said Alvarez. “He was walking toward me. The street was narrow.”

Alvarez was on the phone.

“Once he got close to me he just bumped me,” Alvarez said. “I didn’t even know it happened.... Right away, my reflexes, I just pushed him off fast.”

That’s when Vale asked, “What, what?” Alvarez remembered.

“I looked in his hands and I saw he had a knife,” he said. Alvarez got into position to grab Vale but the attacker just jogged away.

A stunned Alvarez kept heading down the block toward work.

“I was walking and somebody in a car said ‘Yo, you’re bleeding,” Alvarez said. So he reached back and felt his lower back.

“It was just dripping,” he said.

Alvarez went to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and underwent surgery to close an artery.

Alvarez’s cousin was still in the neighborhood and asked for a description of Vale, then snapped a photo after driving a couple of blocks of someone who fit the description and sent it to Alvarez.

“I was like ‘Yeah, that’s him. That’s definitely him,’” Alvarez recounted.

The cousin called the police.

“My cousin told me he threw the knife under the car but the cops seen it and they arrested him,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez does not expect Vale will remain free for long. On Sunday, cops released an old mugshot of Vale and asked the public’s help finding him.

After the 2020 attack, Alvarez said, Vale “was stupid enough to just be walking around.”

Cops are asking anyone with information on Vale’s whereabouts to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.