Dozens Ignored a Man Dying on a Queens Sidewalk

[Elmore Furth]

Tale-Yax was fatally stabbed several times in the chest on Sunday while saving a woman from a knife-wielding thug. Surveillance camera video shows dozens of passers by walked past him as he lay dying on the ground.

One guy took phot of the of Tale-Yax on his cellphone.

Cold, really cold.

Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax’s last act may have been helping a woman who was having an argument with another man last Sunday morning in Queens. But his last hour or so was spent as a curiosity for people passing him on the street as he lay face down in blood after being stabbed several times.

Mr. Tale-Yax, 31, was pronounced dead by medical workers who responded to a 911 call around 7:20 a.m. on April 18. The police confirmed the authenticity of surveillance video on The New York Post’s Web site that shows dozens of people walking by Mr. Tale-Yax, who was homeless, lying on the sidewalk at 144th Street and 88th Road in Jamaica. After more than an hour, the video shows one man shake Mr. Tale-Yax before turning him over to reveal the wounds.

The police said they were looking for the man who was in the altercation with the woman. He was described as 5-foot-6, with a medium build, wearing a green short-sleeved shirt and a green hat.

The police were not sure if the woman knew what happened to Mr. Tale-Yax, but they said it was possible she knew the suspect. The police expressed hope that news coverage of the killing will prompt her to realize and identify the suspect.



Dozens Ignored a Man Dying on a Queens Sidewalk

[tekisui]

1. More symptoms of a sick society.

We are ate-up with social cancer.

[JI7]

2. the woman he was trying to help left also ?

[DesertFlower]

3. he took a photo with cellphone, but didn't

call 911? WTF?

[liberalpragmatist]

4. I wonder how much of it was due to his being homeless

People are horrible to the homeless. They don't care, really.

[foxfeet]

5. It's the Kitty Genovese syndrome.

Genovese was murdered in NYC and dozens of people heard her screams as she was stabbed repeatedly. Nobody intervened. The social psychology seems to involve a notion of "shared responsibility" when groups of people witness a situation that requires intervention. The larger the group (including a bunch of complete strangers passing on the sidewalk) the more the sense of responsibility becomes diluted. Nobody wants to be the first to take action.

[rug]

6. That was in Queens too.

[winstars]

10. As a NYC'er, it's wild that we remember

a murder that had to be in like 1966 or something... (sorry, to lazy to Google) It instantly came right to the front of my head after seeing the headline. In a way, it must mean that it sticks out in us/me BECAUSE IT DOES NOT happen that often... The people not helping another thing is what I mean...

[rug]

11. Ii remember it well. Kew Gardens, I believe. It became a metaphor for decades.

[zonkers]

12. Kitty Genovese.

[RagAss]

21. Thanks for clearing it up...all these years I though it was Sunnyside.

[foxfeet]

23. I certainly intended no disrespect to NYC.

I lived there from '76 - '82 (went to grad school at Fordham). This kind of thing can happen anywhere. The vast majority of New Yorkers are decent, helpful people.

[Tuvok Obama]

18. I see a huge difference between this case and the case of Kitty Genovese

"Genovese was murdered in NYC and dozens of people heard her screams as she was stabbed repeatedly."

This man lay face down on the sidewalk for an hour before someone rolled him over and discovered he was bleeding.

However, I do understand your point that "nobody wants to be the first to take action." I saw a documentary on PBS that showed, over and over, that a tiny percentage of passersby will stop to check on the welfare of a person who is passed out on a sidewalk. (The person on the sidewalk was actually a participant in the study, pretending to be passed out.)

After one person has stopped to check, a larger percentage of passersby will then stop to help. After two people have stopped to check, an even larger percentage will stop. And once three people have stopped to check, the scene instantly changes. Suddenly it's socially-acceptable to care, and everyone in the crowd is calling 911 and giving medical advice. Suddenly, it's an emergency.

[Caliman73]

20. The "bystander effect" or "diffusion of responsibility"

Very common in larger groups.

[Crystal Clarity]

7. 'No good deed goes unpunished'

-or so it is said... but this is beyond the pale. How cruel and heartless can people be?

[BunkerHill24]

8. There's also more and more cabbies killed across the states, just because they are born w/brown skin

I wish we can cure human-with-violence!

[chill_wind]

9. Brutually cold and sad. And somehow we delude ourselves

that people in this country really care about things larger than themselves, like war, war crimes and torture, poverty, the homeless, the uninsured-- the things we talk about here every day. People that can step over and around a human lying on the sidewalk without stopping-- we think those people care about what kind of a country we live in. Or that any who don't are somehow the great exception..

[Rex]

13. I guess homeless people really are without help - dog eat dog world.

Sick, how could people not AT LEAST call 911!? Society really gone down that low on the humanity level? Yikes! That's fucking scary.

[rustydog]

17. What is ironic is this person who may have a "right" to hate the world

and tell people to fuck off, gave his life to help another human in trouble.
No working-man or woman stepped in and helped. A homeless man gave all he posessed to save her and died.
He was a great human being in my book.

[indy legend]

14. This is the world that republicans long for and would proudly call home

They always have, and always will be of the mindset that if it doesn't affect me, it isn't important.

[surrealAmerican]

15. It says he was found "by medical workers who responded to a 911 call" ...

... doesn't that mean that somebody called 911?

[Incitatus]

22. Yes, more than an hour after the incident. After many more walked by and did nothing.

[rustydog]

16. This makes my heart ache for humanity or the lack of it.

One day my wife and I were returning home from a day of shopping and, passing a block inhabited by several bars, I saw a man face-down on the street. I directed my wife to slow down check for oncoming traffic and make a u-turn so that I could check on the man's condition.

It turned out he was shit-faced drunk and fell asleep waiting for his buddy to come get him. Not five minutes later, his ride did show up.

How much time out of one's life does it take to check on the welfare of another? Is it that difficult?

[undeterred]

19. And in Wisconsin a driver deliberately hit a mother duck

leading her young across the street. The driver in the next car picked up all 14 ducklings and took them to the humane society.

We've got all kinds.