By Christina Santucci
Police were searching for the driver of a dark-colored, older model sedan who is suspected of stabbing a 26-year-old Astoria deejay to death and wounding another man in Woodside over the weekend.
The vehicle was outfitted with decals on both front quarter panels and possibly had a shattered rear window and the man behind the wheel was described as either Asian or Hispanic with dark hair, between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-8 and in the range of 120 to 170 pounds, the NYPD said.
The suspect was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans early Saturday morning, when Isaac Martinez was killed and a 33-year-old man was also stabbed, police said. The other victim, identified by the advocacy group Hispanics Across America as Carlos Perez, was listed in stable condition at Elmhurst Hospital Saturday, according to the NYPD.
Perez told the New York Post that he and Martinez had tried to hail a livery cab and an altercation broke out with the driver, who then allegedly beat his would-be passengers with a bat before knifing them.
Fernando Mateo, president and founder of Hispanics Across America, announced that HAA was offering $5,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case, a fellow member of Hispanics Across America, Alfredo Sandoval, said.
At about 4:30 a.m. Saturday, officers were called to Roosevelt Avenue near the corner of 68th Street, where they found Perez with a stab wound to the torso and Martinez with one to the chest, the NYPD said. Both men were taken to Elmhurst Hospital, where Martinez was pronounced dead, police said. An investigation into the killed was ongoing, authorities said.
According to his Facebook page, Martinez was a father and used the nickname DJ Cobra. One photo on the account shows Martinez snuggling with his young son.
Hours before he was killed, Martinez wrote on his social media account that he had been at two clubs on Roosevelt Avenue.
Carlos Suarez, who was manning the counter at Los Brothers Grocery Saturday afternoon and described himself as a close friend of the owner, said the deli and produce shop was open at 4:30 a.m.
He said surveillance video showed Perez and Martinez entering the store, buying beer and leaving the fruit and vegetable store was handed over to police, but the shop’s cameras were not trained on the sidewalk where the stabbing took place.
Suarez said authorities had closed down parts of the block for hours until 2 p.m. Saturday as they performed their investigation.
He described the neighborhood as quiet.
“This is extremely unusual,” Suarez said.
Reach managing editor Christina Santucci by e-mail at timesledgerphotos@gmail.com or by phone at 718-260-4589.
