Sister of NYC stabbing victim remembers his ‘wholesome spirit,’ calls for killings to stop
An 18-year-old man stabbed to death in the Flatiron District this weekend had just come back to the city after wrapping up his first semester of college when he was killed, his sister said Sunday — as she called for such senseless bloodshed to stop.
Denzel Bimpey, of the Bronx, was a “wholesome spirit” with an infectious grin who loved basketball and LeBron James, recalled his sister, Godslove Bimpey, in an interview with The Post.
“He was your average kid from the Bronx, trying to do better,” said Godslove, 28, also of the Bronx. “He had great role models ahead of him.”
The teen had just finished finals at SUNY Morrisville in upstate New York and been sick for the last few days before he took the bus home from nearby Syracuse for the holidays.
“He said he would be home at like 12, because there’s always traffic,” said Godslove. “That was the last time I spoke to him.”
She never saw her beloved brother alive again.
“At this moment, we just don’t understand,” Godslove continued. “We’re hurt. We’re extremely hurt. It did not need to get to this point. These crimes need to stop.”
Police have said Bimpey was stabbed to death on the corner of East 26th Street and Park Avenue South at about 10:40 p.m. on Friday.
The knife-wielding madman stuck Bimpey several times in his chest, shoulder and arm and then ran off, cops said.
Authorities rushed him to Bellevue Hospital, but he could not be saved.
Officers have taken a “person of interest” into custody, but he had not been charged, or publicly identified, as of Sunday.
Police told Bimpey’s sister that her brother had gotten into some kind of altercation, then ran away, she said.
A group of guys chased him, and by the time Bimpey’s university friends caught up, he was bleeding out on the ground, she said.
“My brother was calling for help,” Godslove said, adding that she doesn’t know who the people who chased her brother are, or where they’re from.
She remembered him as someone who was always the center of attention — but in a good way.
“He didn’t have to try hard,” she told The Post Sunday. “He was always smiling, even when he was upset or mad. You could never be mad at him for too long … he was a funny character.”
“He had a very wholesome spirit,” Godslove continued.
“He knew when something was wrong with you, internally, without you even saying a word. He would randomly text me like, ‘Hey, I miss you. I love you.’”
A diehard basketball fan who loved LeBron James, Bimpey was a student of the game who knew details of contests played decades before he was born.
“He loved basketball, he understood it,” Godslove said. “He knew every player, their stats, everything … that’s how much he studied it.”
Bimpey — who had three brothers and a sister — often took care of his mom, who has been in poor health, Godslove said.
His death has crushed her, she added.
“My mom is not okay,” she said. “She’s not okay.”
Godslove added that she was depending on God’s vengeful wrath to force the people involved in her brother’s killing to turn themselves in.
“You’re going to turn yourself in, because the amount of guilt you will feel for taking somebody’s child is so big,” she said.
“Everywhere you turn, you will see my brother’s face,” she continued. “You will hear his name. He will taunt you. Because the God we serve will do that. The God we serve is going to prevail, and we’re going to get justice because we serve a higher power.”
