Yonkers teen, aspiring rapper, slain on NYC subway platform; 15-year-old charged
A 14-year-old aspiring rapper who recently moved to Yonkers may have been the instigator in a fight with a rival teenager that left him fatally stabbed on a New York City subway platform this weekend.
Prosecutors downgraded the original second-degree murder charge filed by police against 15-year-old Kelvin Martinez to first-degree manslaughter after learning Ethan Reyes had cornered Martinez and confronted him with a broomstick, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said.
The altercation occurred just before 3 p.m. Saturday on the uptown platform of the 137th Street-City College "1" train station in Hamilton Heights.
Reyes, known by his rap name "Notti Osama," had his liver punctured when he was stabbed once in the abdomen and died a short time later as EMS transferred him to a hospital.
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At Martinez' arraignment on Sunday, Assistant District Attorney Daniel Makofsky said investigators were still looking into the circumstances leading up to the fatal stabbing.
According to Makofsky:
∎ Reyes and Martinez knew each other and were associates of rival gangs that had a series of escalations in recent weeks. On Saturday afternoon, Reyes and two friends were walking at 137th Street and Broadway when they came across Martinez, who went into the train station to catch an uptown train.
∎ Reyes grabbed a broomstick and he and his friends followed Martinez into the station. They cornered him at the north end of the platform, Reyes hit Martinez with the stick and Martinez pulled out a knife and swung at Reyes, hitting him in the abdomen.
∎ One of Reyes' friends also swung a sharp object at Martinez and Reyes, despite being stabbed, pushed Martinez onto the train tracks, where he landed on his back. Martinez then climbed up and fled the station as Reyes staggered down the platform and collapsed on the staircase.
Martinez was arrested a few hours later with the help of his mother and he was interviewed by NYPD detectives and DA investigators. He was also treated at a hospital for an injured back and two puncture wounds to his left hip that were sustained in the altercation.
"The DA's Office needs to further investigate and explore possible legal defenses, such as justification, as well as investigate Mr. Martinez' claims that in the preceding weeks Mr. Martinez was assaulted by members of Mr. Reyes' gang," Makofsky told the judge Sunday, according to a transcript provided by the District Attorney's Office.
The prosecutor did not request bail and it was agreed that Martinez would be allowed to live outside New York City at a location known to prosecutors but not identified publicly because of "a significant risk of violent retaliation" against Martinez.
Reyes was known on social media for drill rapping, which Mayor Eric Adams assailed in February as "alarming" for its depiction of gun and gang violence.
A makeshift memorial is at West 140th Street and Broadway in New York, a block where he lived up until moving with his family to Young Avenue in Yonkers a few months ago.
“Notti" is spelled out in candles, with a keyboard on the ground. There is also a poster on which friends and others wrote messages.
Twitter: @jonbandler
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Yonkers teen slain on subway platform; 15-year-old charged
