Man charged with murder for fatally stabbing fellow migrant outside East Harlem shelter where they lived

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — A man was stabbed to death outside of an East Harlem migrant shelter where he lived early Sunday morning, allegedly by a fellow migrant who was arrested and charged with murder shortly after the killing.

The stabbing happened outside of a migrant shelter located at 1760 Third Ave., near East 97th Street, at about 4:02 a.m.

The 500-family shelter was opened by the city last year inside of an empty building that was previously used as housing for Hunter College and Baruch College students.

According to police, 29-year-old Argeyeris Martinez was stabbed in the chest after engaging in a fight with 30-year-old Oscar Gonzalez, both of whom lived in the shelter.

It was not immediately clear what started the altercation.

EMS transported Martinez to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Gonzalez was quickly taken into custody as a person of interest, and was formally arrested at 5:50 p.m. on Sunday. He was charged with murder and aggravated criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

Within two weeks in January, a man was killed in a fatal stabbing outside of the Randall’s Island migrant shelter and another was hospitalized after being stabbed in the neck outside of the same shelter. A month later a teen was stabbed by a mob that chased him near a Times Square migrant shelter.

“The overwhelming majority of migrants in our care came to our city in search of a better life and the American Dream. The small number of those disrupting that journey for the rest of the migrants in our care by acting violently will face enforcement to the fullest extent of the law,” a spokesperson from City Hall told 1010 WINS/WCBS 880 after the fatal stabbing in January.