The mother of a Bronx man has been left devastated and searching for answers after he was fatally stabbed in the gut on a desolate street after just going out for his daily morning exercise.
Onyeka Odunze, 42, a West African immigrant, as was his everyday routine, had stepped outside for some physical activity Thursday morning, his mother, Constance Odunze, 66 told the Daily News.
“He just left here in the morning to get exercise,” she said. “He did so every morning.”
However, Onyeka was outside a dialysis center on Park Ave. near E. 167th St. in Morrisania just before 8 a.m. when a man dressed in black attacked him, jamming a knife into his lower abdomen, cops said.
EMS rushed the victim to Lincoln Hospital, where he died just 50 minutes later, police sources said.
The stabber ran off and was last seen heading east on E. 167th St.
The mother said detectives have video of the incident that shows a fight ensuing before the stabbing.
A motive for the clash and the fatal stabbing was not immediately disclosed. No arrests have been made.
A worker at the dialysis center outside which Onyeka was killed said, according to his boss, the victim was not a patient there.
“He was a nice guy who never got into trouble with anybody,” Constance said. “My only concern is to find out who brutally stabbed him and killed my son.”
Onyeka, who lived with his mom in Morrisania, came to New York from Nigeria in 2004, hoping for a better life, she said. He worked as a patient-care technician at a hospital but was currently out of work.
The deadly knifing took place on a small street that abuts a railway line, with one side of the street fenced off and overgrown with weeds and shrubs.
