BOERUM HILL, Brooklyn (PIX11) — Ramon Cintron had lived in his NYCHA complex in Brooklyn for close to 40 years. The beloved 83-year-old man was headed to his apartment over the weekend when he was stabbed to death.
“I started crying, I broke down when his daughter called me,” said one neighbor who wished to remain anonymous. “I said no, not him. Why would anyone do that to him? He was amazing.”
Cintron was loved by many in the building and was called “Flaco,” a nickname meaning skinny in Spanish. Everyone loved him and respected him, so it is hard for many in the building to make sense of what happened.
Police believe the man suspected of killing Cintron is 26-year-old Joevani Vale. Vale is also believed to have slashed a woman in the thigh an hour before Cintron’s body was found lifeless.
Many neighbors told PIX11 News that Vale had a history of terrorizing the building and had family that he visited on the regular.
“The building knew that [Vale] had issues,” said Robert Crispin, a neighbor who also lived in the Wyckoff Gardens NYCHA building in Boerum Hill where Cintron was murdered. “This wasn’t the first time that he got into a situation where he hurt someone in the building with cuts or slashings.”
Crispin continued, “[Cintron] was just a loving guy. You would just expect at 80 something you would die from natural causes.”
Vale is wanted in connection to Cintron’s murder and the slashing of a 31-year-old woman.
Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
