Man knifed to death near Brooklyn’s Barclays Center


A man was fatally stabbed after he was jumped in downtown Brooklyn, officials said Saturday.

Michael Hernandez, 27, was walking near the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush Aves. — a few steps from the Barclays Center — about 9 p.m. Friday when a group of people raced over and attacked him in the street, witnesses told police.

The victim was repeatedly stabbed in the abdomen, cops said.

Blood is pictured in the westbound lanes of Atlantic Ave. near Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn after a man was fatally stabbed in the intersection, just steps from Barclays Center, on Friday, March 14, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Blood is pictured in the westbound lanes of Atlantic Ave. near Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn after a man was fatally stabbed in the intersection, just steps from Barclays Center, on Friday, March 14, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)

Cops responding to a 911 call of an assault in progress found Hernandez sprawled out on Flatbush Ave. in a southbound lane. His attackers had run off.

EMS rushed the victim to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.

A man was fatally stabbed at the intersection of Atlantic Ave. and Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn on Friday, March 14, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
A man was fatally stabbed at the intersection of Atlantic Ave. and Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn on Friday, March 14, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)

No arrests have been made.

Police on Saturday night gave an address for a homeless shelter in East New York, Brooklyn, where they said Hernandez lived. At the shelter, though, staff refused to answer questions by a Daily News reporter, who was then turned away by security.

The stabbing took place as a concert for South Korean rapper J-Hope was held at the Barclays Center.

Saturday’s rain washed away a small pool of blood left behind at the scene.

Area residents were stunned that the bloody brazen attack would happen on the bustling thoroughfare.

“I hope they catch the guy,” longtime New Yorker Brittany Dutchman said about the stabber. “I want them to catch these people because I think people who do bad things should go to jail.”

With the Barclays Center and all the restaurants near by, the section of Flatbush Ave. where the stabbing took place is usually bustling, Dutchman, 40, said.

“It’s busy, Particularly if there’s an event or a game,” she said. “(This is) a major transit hub. You have the Barclays Center right here, So unless there wasn’t an event, I would expect it to be pretty busy.”

Police on Saturday were scouring the area for surveillance footage that could help them identify the attacker.

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