A Long Island teen faces multiple criminal charges after he allegedly stabbed a New Jersey high school student in the heart outside a Manhattan axe-throwing bar early Thanksgiving morning, NBC New York reports.
Authorities allege that around 1:50 a.m. Thursday, 19-year-old Gianluca Bordone knifed 17-year-old Rocco Rodden and his older brother in front of the Live Axe bar in Chinatown.
The teens had been at a private party in the establishment and continued drinking outside on the street when the fight broke out.
Medics rushed the brothers to Bellevue Hospital, where Rodden died around 8:45 a.m. An autopsy found that he suffered a 6-inch stab wound, which struck his heart’s left ventricle.
Meanwhile, Bordone fled the scene but police later apprehended him wearing a blood-coated vest.
On Saturday morning, Bordone, of Oyster Bay, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of manslaughter and assault. He reportedly mouthed “Oh my God” when the prosecutor told the court that Rodden had died, according to the New York Post.
An attorney representing Bordone told the court that the case is “far more complicated” than what prosecutors have alleged.
“What was not discussed . . . is the chaos and mayhem that surrounded this entire incident including what my client was subjected to — which again not on surveillance video, not discussed by prosecutors — where he was pummeled repeatedly,” defense lawyer Warren Quaid told the court, according to the Post.
A judge set Bordone’s bail at $4 million.
On social media, Rodden’s father said he feels “broken inside,” according to the Post. “I have no words that he was murdered in cold blood.!! Life will never be the same without him.”
Rodden was a junior at Saint Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, New Jersey, where played football as an offensive lineman. The team’s former coach, Dan Marangi, said Rodden will be missed.
“Just last week he and I were cracking jokes, talking about the off-season and next season,” Marangi told NorthJersey.com.
“Rocco came to us after his freshman year and was immediately welcomed not only by the football team, but by the larger school community. That shows the type of young man that he was. He was loved and loved by everyone.”
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[Feature Photo: Rocco Rodden/Instagram]
