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A 32-year-old gay Black man was killed in a stabbing a year after he survived an eerily similar, homophobic attack, according to WNYW. Tavon Silver was reportedly found bleeding out on a New York City subway train Saturday morning (June 17) and later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Police said they arrested 33-year-old Claude White, a homeless man, on Monday (June 19) in connection to Silver's brutal death. According to Assistant District Attorney Victoria Meyer, White, who didn't know Silver, got into an argument over a drug deal before violence broke out.
“The defendant had every opportunity in the world to choose not to kill this man but in the defendant’s own words to the detectives, he felt that there must be ‘consequences,'” Meyer told the court during White's arraignment hearing on Tuesday, June 20, per New York Post.
WNYW interviewed Silver last year after he was attacked on a Bronx subway train in June 2022. Police reports at the time allege Runadieo Jordan shouted homophobic slurs at the gay man before stabbing him in the arm.
"Next thing I know, like, I had a hole in my arm. Like blood was gushing everywhere," Silver told reporters." It was one straight cut, and he took a giant chunk of my wrist. He literally cut my wrist off. So, like, if you look straight through, you can see my bone."
LeSean Griffin, Silver's former fiancé who was with him during the 2022 stabbing, couldn't believe this happened again.
"I was devastated," Griffin told WNYW. "It was like, this just can't be real. The same situation, but this time it led to his death."
White has been charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon in Silver's fatal stabbing. A judge remanded him without bail, deeming him a flight risk.
According to reporters, the 33-year-old man was previously arraigned for a burglary he allegedly committed earlier this month. He also has an extensive criminal history, including attacks against other homeless people.
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