A 17-year-old boy died, and a 19-year-old man was injured in a stabbing on Thanksgiving morning in New York City, as per the Police Department. The incident occurred outside an axe-throwing bar called Live Axe in Chinatown after an argument with another group.
The fatal stabbing took place in front of 96 Lafayette St. in Chinatown at around 1:50 a.m. The police have not disclosed details about the altercation or confirmed if the victims were inside the bar.
An axe was not used in the stabbing
Both victims were stabbed in the torso, and although the weapon type was not specified by the police, sources indicated it wasn’t an axe. The 17-year-old, Rocco Rodden, was in critical condition and later died at Bellevue Hospital.
The 19-year-old man, unidentified, sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was listed in stable condition at the same hospital. The teenagers stabbed were reported to be brothers, as per the NY Post.
Gianluca Bordone has been charged
Gianluca Bordone, 19, is charged with manslaughter and assault in the fatal stabbing in Chinatown. Bordone allegedly attacked the brothers and fatally stabbed the younger brother. The father expressed profound grief, stating he was left “broken inside” by his son’s death.
Rodden was a junior at Saint Joseph Regional High School, a private Catholic school in Montvale, NJ, while his 19-year-old brother graduated from Oyster Bay High School last spring.
‘Our thoughts and prayers are with Rocco’s family’
“I have no words that he was murdered in cold blood.!! Life will never be the same without him,” he expressed on social media. Friends remembered Rodden as loyal and adventurous. “Every time My Way would come on the speakers you would talk about how that is the song you want at your funeral, We just never thought it would be this soon,” one wrote on Instagram.
“It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of one of our own, Rocco Rodden,” the school wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Rocco’s family and friends during this incredibly difficult time.”
Bordone was awaiting arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday night.