A 22-year-old woman was stabbed to death yesterday morning by a man police say was her girlfriend's ex-husband. The NYPD has charged Alwasi Tyson in the murder of Toni Cox, after Cox was found with multiple knife wounds in an apartment at 60 Clarkson Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens at 5:30 a.m. yesterday.
Officers had been responding to a 911 call around 5:30 a.m. when they found Cox with many stab wounds to her torso. She was rushed to Kings County Hospital but could not be saved. Police told the Daily News that Tyson, 35, had once been married to Cox's new girlfriend, and had murdered her out of jealousy.
The Post reports that Cox had been inside her girlfriend's apartment when Tyson attacked her. Police have charged Tyson with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, plus acting in a manner injurious to a child, because four children were in the apartment during the stabbing.
Neighbors told the Post that that only five permanent residents live in the building. The building at 60 Clarkson Avenue was a privately run homeless shelter owned landlord Barry Hers. Last year, residents gave Gothamist an up-close look at the neglected conditions of 60 Clarkson, which suffered from severe leaks, mold, rats mice, and cockroach infestations. Jennifer Berkley, a Tenants and Neighbors organizer, that Hers's "version of following the law is really being compromised. He should really be arrested at this point. It's really just appalling what's going on there."
Cox's distraught father Derrick Moore told the News that she had moved to Brooklyn from Baltimore only two weeks ago, and was working as a maintenance worker at a rehab center. "My head’s messed up. She was my baby girl. This thing is just terrible," Moore said.
