A Staten Island man was stabbed to death after a fight broke out at his engagement party early Saturday. Police responded to a 911 call at Espana Restaurant and Lounge in Annandale early Saturday and found Antonio Lacertosa bleeding from a stab wound to the torso, officials said. Gus Rosendale reports.
A 27-year-old Staten Island man was stabbed to death outside a restaurant shortly after celebrating his engagement with his fiancee, family and friends, according to police and multiple reports.
Police responding to a 911 call at Espana Restaurant and Lounge in Annandale early Saturday found Antonio Lacertosa bleeding from a stab wound to the torso, authorities say.
Lacertosa and his friends went to the restaurant to continue their celebration after an earlier party at a catering hall, and ended up getting into an argument with bar management -- allegedly over unruly boisterous behavior -- at about 2 a.m., according to SILive.com.
The verbal argument escalated outside the restaurant and a man believed to be an employee of the restaurant allegedly stabbed Lacertosa with a kitchen knife in an alley.
He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
"It's completely shocking," said childhood friend Tom Hare in Annadale, Staten Island. "There's always been kids that hung out here. Anthony was one of them. When I was younger, we used to all hang out in the park together.
Vito Teutonico, another friend, said of Lacertosa, "I know him from the neighborhood. He was a really good guy. He was a stand-up kid, for his age. He was clean-cut, he was a hard worker."
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
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