Bronx neighbors mourn ‘honorable’ postal worker killed over spot in deli sandwich line

A U.S. Postal Service worker knifed to death during a senseless fight over a spot on a sandwich line in a Harlem deli was remembered Friday as an “honorable” father of two who treated everyone respectfully.

Letter carrier Ray ‘Ray Ray’ Hodges, 36, was waiting to order a sandwich at Joe’s Grocery on Lenox Ave. near W. 118th St. at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday when he got into an argument with 24-year-old Jaia Cruz over who was next in line.

Witnesses said Hodges was about to state his order when Cruz accused him of cutting her place in line. The simple argument suddenly exploded into deadly violence when Cruz stabbed Hodges three times with a steak knife, police said.

Hodges died after being rushed to Harlem Hospital.

The Bronx resident joined the United States Postal Service in 2022 and worked out of the Morningside post office, an agency spokesman said Friday.

“He was an amazing person. He was a great father, a great person,” longtime friend Flip Morales said outside Hodges’ Mott Haven home Friday. “He was always a working man. I’d see him and he’s just going to work.

“It’s just messed up that the family gotta go through this,” Morales, 36, said. “He was trying to just make some money. That’s it. Just getting up doing what you gotta do to provide for his kids and his family, and things like this [happen].”

A sandwich maker at Joe’s Grocery told the Daily News that Hodges was waiting at the counter when the suspect stepped in front of him to place an order and the pair began to argue over who cut who.

As the dispute grew heated, the deli worker stepped between his feuding customers in an effort to de-escalate the fight, only for the suspect to spit in the victim’s face.

“After I separate them, she came from behind me, she spit on him, on his face,” said the sandwich maker, who declined to share his name.

The vile act prompted Hodges to snatch a plastic bottle and hurl it at the suspect, who dodged the drink and then drew a knife, the deli worker said. Hodges backed away, but he couldn’t escape, the worker said.

“She stabbed him in the neck and one in his stomach, the other one … maybe his legs,” the worker said. “He keep fighting, so we call the cops, the ambulance, but he just lost, and he passed away.”

A stunned witness to the fatal stabbing said the fight between Hodges and Cruz was “over nothing.”

“It was over a sandwich,” Janet Rich, who was in the deli buying coffee when the fight broke out, told The News Thursday. “It was, ‘I was next. No, I was next.’”

Rich and another woman inside the store attempted to intervene, but neither Hodges nor Cruz wanted to back down, Rich said.

“I got in between them — twice,” said Rich, who remembered a woman with dreadlocks also jumped in, imploring Hodges to stand down

“Don’t do this, you have a good job,” Rich recalled the woman saying. “Let this go.”

But Hodges didn’t relent. Instead, he took off his coat and said to Cruz, “You want to stab me?”

“I picked up his coat and put it back on,” Rich said. “I was trying to prevent the fight.”

Cruz ran to her nearby home after stabbing Hodges, but was quickly taken into custody and charged with second degree murder.

Her arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court was pending.

Most of Hodges’ immediate family were too grief stricken to talk to reporters Friday.

“Ray was a great person,” his brother told The News when seen outside Hodges home. “He was an honorable man. He took care of his family and everybody. Respectful.”

Friends and relatives set up a memorial outside his home with votive candles encircling a USPS visor.

“‘RAY RAY” someone wrote in black marker. “WE WILL MISS YOU!”

“We loved him. The community loved him,” said another longtime friend, who would only identify himself as the Swagger King.

Hodges, who he knew as “Ray Gun” was a “good kid” he said.

“That s–t was senseless,” he said about Hodges death. “[But] we’re in a community where a lot of senseless s–t happens. It’s whack.”

One of Hodges’ longtime neighbors, who would only identify herself as Mrs. Jenkins, broke down in tears as she wondered how a simple disagreement could end up in so much bloodshed.

“He is such a polite person. He holds the door for me and everybody,” said Mrs. Jenkins, 65, who couldn’t come to terms with what happened.

“It’s coward-like. Why?” she asked. “It’s senseless. I mean why?”