Cops want to question a man and a woman they believe have pivotal information about the fatal stabbing of a 39-year-old man outside a historic former Bronx NYPD stationhouse earlier this month, officials said Tuesday.
Cops released surveillance footage of the couple in the hopes that someone recognizes them. They want to quiz the pair as they continue to look for the man who fatally stabbed Shamel Parnell in the neck and chest on Bathgate Ave. near E. Tremont Ave. about 12:20 a.m. on June 2.
Police last week released a surveillance image of the suspected stabber, who fled the scene in a cab.
Parnell got into an argument with his killer before being stabbed. Medics rushed him to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died about 25 minutes later, officials said.
The stabber fled in a dark-colored cab last seen heading west on E. 179th St., police said. Cops recovered a knife at the scene.
The victim’s mother, Sherri Parnell, 61, hadn’t seen her son for more than a decade when he was killed.
“When the officers came yesterday, they showed me a picture and it was him,” she said after the slaying. “I haven’t seen him in some years, many years really. Approximately 12 years. But that’s still my son.
“He stayed with me a little when I lived in another part of the Bronx but he’d always be going out, coming in,” she added. “I didn’t know what he was doing.”
The building Parnell was stabbed in front of housed the NYPD’s 48th Precinct for decades but is now home to a Head Start program. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 for its notable architecture.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.