College freshman Denzel Bimpey had just wrapped up his first-semester finals and was looking forward to a homecooked meal upon returning to the Bronx to celebrate Christmas with his proud family.
The presents were bought and homecoming meal prepared, but his family’s dream of a joyous and peaceful holiday was dashed when Denzel, 18, was stabbed to death moments after stepping off the bus in Midtown Manhattan Friday night.
He had just traveled five hours from SUNY Morrisville to spend winter break with his mother and siblings when he became the city’s latest victim of an unsolved homicide.
“It was a straight bus ride home for him,” his sister, Godslove Nti, 28, told the Daily News Sunday. “He was under the weather. He was a bit sick so I was making sure he took medicine before he got on the bus.”
Denzel said he should be home around 10 p.m. and that he loved her.
“He always told me he loved me after every conversation we had no matter if I was angry,” she said.
About 10:40 p.m. Friday, police found him stabbed in the chest, shoulder and arm on Park Ave. South near E. 26th St. in the Flatiron District, at the end of a blood trail that spanned a block and a half. Medics rushed him to Bellevue Hospital but could not be saved. Cops say he was stabbed during a clash with his killer but have made no arrests.
Denzel was majoring in business and successfully adjusting to upstate college life, “a different world for city kids,” his sister says.
“It’s a college that’s very farmland, greenery, secluded,” she added. “They had limited options for food so when he did come home we made sure to pack him a lot of food.”
One of his first priorities coming home was to ask his mother to prepare him jollof, a West African rice dish.
“My mom and my other brother was going to make that for him,” she said of the family’s Friday plans.
“He had all of us who had been through college so we guided him,” she added. “He was in good hands. He was a typical college kid. He went to that school because I went to that school and his other brother went there.”
They had grown up too poor to properly celebrate Christmas in the past but this year was going to be different.
“We just put up our tree,”Nti said. “We were going to celebrate with Christmas songs. It was going to be our second time really celebrating Christmas.”
Nicholas Williams for New York Daily News
Memorial candles outside the home of Denzel Bimpey, who was stabbed to death Friday night. (Nicholas Williams for New York Daily News)
Social media chatter suggests Denzel’s death was connected to an ongoing fight between local Bronx street gangs and NBC New York reports he may have argued with two attackers on the bus before the stabbing. He was known to his friends by the nickname “Droy.”
Nti says she doesn’t know what led to his death but she bristled about what she referred to as “bullying” social media posts, including some on his own Instagram page mocking his fate. Police were monitoring those posts, she said.
“Whoever did this won’t be able to hide from it. Wherever he is, the cops are going to find him,” she said. “Any bullying and any harassment going on, it needs to stop. And making fun in light of the situation needs to stop. No mother should ever have to bury their child. My grandmother should not see her grandson getting buried.”
Denzel, an avid basketball player, wanted to go into the business side of sports and own his own company one day.
“He had big goals,” his sister said. “He wanted to move his mom out the hood.”
He was a diehard LeBron James fan.
“He just knew LeBron was the greatest player … He knew the stats, he watched ’90s basketball. He followed LeBron through his whole journey from Cleveland, Miami, back to Cleveland,” she said. “He was the only LeBron fan in the house and we would tease him sometimes, saying LeBron wasn’t the best. He was passionate in arguments. He knew basketball like the back of his hand.”
Courtesy of the victim’s family
Denzel Bimpey, 18, was stabbed in the Flatiron District on Friday. (Courtesy of the victim’s family)
Denzel was the second youngest of five siblings and his family had a tradition of dressing in pajamas and taking photos together to mark the holidays when money was scarce for gifts.
Nti had more in store for Denzel this year.
“I ordered him some clothes,” she said of gifts she now will never give him. “He loved wearing Nike Tech so I bought him that and a cologne, Chanel Bleu, and that was something new for him. I always wanted my brothers to feel they had the nicest things. We grew up with a single mom so it was hard to get us the nicest things … When I was of age to work and contribute to the household I wanted my brothers to look the best and have the best things. As the older sister I wanted to set an example.
Now she worries Christmas will be painful.
“Denzel’s little brother is in pain. They are 11 months apart. My younger brother is scared to go outside,” she said. “”Denzel was lively. He had so much ambition. In any room he was in, he loved to crack jokes on people, he loved to smile.”
With Rebecca White