The irresistible cuteness of a puppy drove a Bronx teenager to slash his girlfriend and fatally stab her cousin yesterday after the two victims refused to let him pet the little pooch, police said.
Samuel Encarnacion, 18, allegedly went berserk about 2:30 a.m. during a visit to the Bronx River Houses, where gal pal Ophelia Torres, 16, and her cousin Johnny Torres, 19, were playing with the 2-week-old black-and-white pit bull mix in an apartment, cops said.
Encarnacion, an aspiring pilot and college student who had no prior criminal record, allegedly demanded to hold the canine. But Johnny Torres said he was trying to train the dog and refused to let Encarnacion near it, cops said.
The rebuff sparked a fistfight. But cops said Encarnacion went further by grabbing a kitchen knife and using it to work out his boiling rage.
Johnny Torres was stabbed in the back and midsection, and died inside the apartment.
Ophelia, who dated Encarnacion for about six weeks and who goes by the nickname “Mookie,” was stabbed about 15 times, and left in critical condition, cops said.
Family members holding vigil at Jacobi Hospital said they could not believe such a brutal stabbing could have been sparked by a dispute over petting a puppy.
“I’m asking myself why,” said a relative, who would not give her name. “How can it be over a dog? I’m assuming she wanted to break up with him.”
Ophelia’s mother was even more adamant, shouting: “She was trying to break up with him, OK?”
Immediately after the killing, Encarnacion went to a friend who lived in the building, police said.
That pal, Herman Misla, 45, said Encarnacion claimed he found the pair dead after entering their apartment. “He comes bang on the door [and says] ‘Yo, Herman, they just stabbed Mookie and killed her cousin. Call the police,’ ” Misla said.
Cops said Encarnacion then threw his bloody clothes down a trash chute, and tried to escape the building through the lobby, where he was caught. He was charged with murder and attempted murder.
“It absolutely shocked me,” said Misla, who added that Encarnacion has a reputation as a good man who didn’t get into trouble. “I don’t think he could do it.”
Misla said Ophelia got the female dog a few days ago.
(p. 5 in metro)