Alleged Queens subway stabber charged with murder

Friday, September 20, 2013

Josh Einiger
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Eyewitness News

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Authorities have charged 22-year-old Steven Torres with murder after he allegedly repeatedly stabbed 69-year-old Edward Orozco because he thought he was blowing him a kiss.

"I have nobody," Alba Orozco said, still in shock.

Her 69 year old husband ever is gone after a depraved and random attack on Monday in Elmhurst.

He had taken Alba to the doctor's office and left her to find a parking space. She was sitting in the waiting room, when she heard his screams.

"When I was sitting there, I hear someone outside saying 'Help! Help! Help me!'" she said.

Police say the retired MTA mechanic had found himself face to face with 22 year old Steven Torres, who told investigators he thought the older man had blown him a kiss and was coming on to him. So he attacked.

"I think he was trying to say get away from me. Leave me alone," Thomas Oniszko said.

Oniszko watched as the victim tried to fend off Torres, who cops say took out a knife and stabbed Orozco again and again.

"He had to have been on something, that guy. Obviously, he had to have been on something the way he was stabbing him. Walk off, go back stab him again, go back - do that 3 or 4 times," he said.

Torres ran off, but cops caught him six blocks away. They say he also confessed to stabbing another man on the Lower East Side earlier in the day, claiming that victim, too had been flirting with him.

Police had initially classified this as a homophobic hate crime, but prosecutors decided not to prosecute it as a bias attack.

He was ordered held without bail and is due back in court on October 1, 2013. He faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

None of that is any consolation to Alba Orozco, who has lost her husband of 16 years, her traveling companion and her best friend.

"My husband is alone with me. We were all the time together. Everywhere. Now, I am alone," she said.