A Sunset Park man faces up to 25 years in prison for allegedly stabbing a Cantonese interpreter in the back with a kitchen knife while she visited his home last month.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez indicted the 61-year-old defendant on charges including second-degree attempted-murder on Dec. 5, saying his unprovoked attack of the interpreter while she accompanied a city social worker dispatched to his home could intimidate other social-service professionals from doing their jobs.
“Such an attack is especially disturbing because it can have a chilling effect on dedicated professionals doing important work to keep our children safe,” Gonzalez said.
The interpreter arrived at the man’s 52nd Street home around 8 pm on Nov. 8 along with the social worker sent by the Administration for Children’s Services, who came to investigate reports that the defendant’s grandchildren showed up to their school looking “messy and unkempt,” the district attorney alleged.
But the social worker began verbally fighting with the kids’ mother — the defendant’s daughter — prompting him to start arguing with the interpreter, according to Gonzalez, who alleged that the man plunged the knife into the left side of her lower back from behind as she and the social worker attempted to leave the apartment.
The caseworker promptly called 911, and police arrested the guy at the scene, according to prosecutors, who said cops later recovered the knife used in the stabbing.
The interpreter — an employee of Accurate Communication Inc., a company contracted by the children’s services agency — ended up in the hospital for treatment of multiple stab wounds, which damaged various internal organs and required surgery, Gonzalez said.
The defendant is being held on $250,000 bail, and is set to return to court on Jan. 16.
