A mother of four was fatally stabbed in the hallway of her apartment building in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood in the early hours of Monday, November 10.
Carmen Lopez was found with multiple stab wounds to her torso at around 4:25 a.m. at her apartment building located at 409 West 129th Street. The NYPD confirmed to People that she was taken to Mount Sinai Morningside, where she was pronounced dead.
Luis Marquez was arrested and charged with murder in connection with Lopez’s death on the morning of Tuesday, November 11, according to the NYPD. It is not currently known if Marquez, 41, had a possible motive for killing Lopez, 47. However, CBS News noted that it’s believed the suspect knew the victim prior to the murder.
CBS News also reported that Lopez was the mother to four young children. She had lived in the apartment building for several years.
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Additionally, sources told PIX11 that they believe Marquez was Lopez’s ex-boyfriend. According to the outlet, he allegedly showed up to the Bronx hospital with cuts on his hands and he was wearing clothing from the scene before he was taken into custody.
“She was a great mother and a great human being. She loved our family, and she loved life,” Lopez’s sister, Lucy Lopez, told the New York Daily News about her sister. “We don’t know how to start over.”
Some of Lopez’s neighbors opened up about seeing the crime scene in their apartment building. “Blood like all over the place, like she was running and blood just dripping and then she stopped right in the middle, which is probably where she collapsed,” one resident told CBS News.
Meanwhile, another person described her as “friendly.” The neighbor continued, “She’ll say, ‘Good morning.’ I could help her with her bags and she would accept my help, things like that. She was just nice, a nice person.”
“It’s sad, very sad. Holidays are coming up [and she] won’t be able to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s with her family,” an additional neighbor said of the situation.
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Another neighbor told the outlet that the building’s residents were trying to figure out how to best support the woman’s family. “When things that has happened, it just, like, affects everybody. [It hits] so close to home,” one resident said.
In light of the tragedy, anti-violence group Street Corner Resources spent time offering support to those in the neighborhood impacted by the murder.
“It makes me feel a certain way as a woman, so imagine people who saw her, saw her moving around, they know her, and how do they feel?” CEO Dr. Iesha Sekou said, per CBS News.
