Reward of $10,000 in Murder of 'Homeless Hero'
Cops search for woman saved by illegal immigrant who was then stabbed to death.
April 26, 2010— -- New York detectives have launched a dragnet to find a woman they believe could help identify the knife-wielding attacker who killed a homeless man who came to her rescue.
A businessman in the area has offered a $10,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest of whoever killed the illegal immigrant, who has been dubbed the "homeless hero."
Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was left to die on a Queens street early in the morning on April 18, despite being noticed by more than two dozen passersby, after he was stabbed while trying to prevent a man from attacking a woman.
Instead, Tale-Yax is stabbed. He staggers a few steps and collapses.
The woman is seen fleeing the scene in a surveillance video, and police are trying to find her in the expectation that she will be able to tell them who killed Tale-Yax.
"We're doing everything possible to find anybody who knows something," said an official in 103rd police precinct in Jamaica, Queens. The officer declined to be identified because the officer was not authorized to comment on the case.
Police do not know if the woman knew that Tale-Yax had been fatally stabbed. However, they believe she may know the man with whom she is seen having an argument before Tale-Yax intervened.
Tale-Yax was a 31-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala and he worked odd jobs and often slept in the parks of the gritty neighborhood filled with immigrants from Central America. He laid in a pool of blood for over an hour and a half as pedestrians passed him by, one even taking a photo with a cell phone camera, before someone called 911 and paramedics arrived at the scene.
The owner of a management company, who owns an apartment building near the scene of the crime, said he turned over two surveillance videos to the police and has offered a $10,000 reward to anyone with information leading to an arrest. The businessman asked that his name not be mentioned for fear of retaliation.
On the surveillance video, a woman about 5-foot-3 is seen being followed by a 5-foot-6 man, wearing dark pants and a green short-sleeve shirt.
Some 25 People Passed Homeless Man as He Died on New York Street
It appears the couple begin having an argument and disappear from sight under some scaffolding as Tale-Yax approached them.
A short scuffle is seen on the video, most of which is obscured by the scaffolding. Soon after Tale-Yax reenters the camera's view is seen falling to the ground.
Over the next hour and a half, some 25 people passed the bleeding body on the street. One many shook Tale-Yax, turned him over to see a pool of blood, but never alerted the police or an ambulance. Another man is seen using his cell phone only to photograph the body.
The Guatemalan Consulate will hold a wake for Tale-Yax Wednesday at a funeral home in Queens.