3 are charged with murder in fatal stabbings of 2 men during brawl on NYC subway

3 charged with murder in fatal NY subway stabbings

NEW YORK — Three men have been charged with murder in the fatal stabbings of two men on a New York City subway over the weekend, police said early Friday.

The men were charged with second-degree murder late Thursday. One suspect, 19-year-old Brenddy Garcia of Brooklyn, was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon.

The other suspects are Franklin Varella of New York City and Diogenes Hernandez of Queens, both 21.

It wasn’t immediately clear early Friday whether they had lawyers. Police had said earlier that one of the men had made statements implicating himself in the stabbings.

Darnell Morel and Ricardo Williams, both 24, were killed in the fight that started around 5 a.m. Sunday on a 2 train heading south along Manhattan’s west side. A third man was wounded and treated at a hospital.

A witness told reporters the men meant to toss the trash out an open train door but instead hit a man standing near the door, and the man flew into a rage and pulled a knife from his jacket. Investigators now believe the two groups had been provoking each other, which started the fight.

No image was captured of the knife-wielding man because no security cameras are at the Greenwich Village station. But even if there had been a camera, it might not have been working, as about half the 4,313 security cameras installed along New York City’s subways are inoperable.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it is working to make all the cameras operable. Nine hundred additional cameras will be working by June, the agency said.