Two families are reacting to the apparent suicide of the man suspected of fatally stabbing another person in Midtown. Army veteran Sir'mone McCaulla, found dead in a Philadelphia apartment yesterday, left a suicide note trying to explain his tragic altercation with Christopher Gutierrez.
On Sunday afternoon, Gutierrez and McCaullara apparently bumped into each other outside the James Farly Post Office on busy Eighth Avenue near 33rd Street. McCaulla wrote, "I turned around cause we bumped into each other we started talking like watch where you goin and we could fight." The rambling note maintains that McCaulla did not intend to kill him, just "stop the threat." Surveillance video shows Gutierrez ripping off his coat and assuming a fighting posture, and then McCaulla lunging at four times with a knife, killing him.
Gutierrez's sister tells the Post there is "no excuse for what [McCaulla] did. He could have just fought him like a man. Why would you take a knife and stab somebody in the chest three times? And he has a daughter, which makes it even more sad." Indeed, McCaulla was on his way to see his daughter (the note ends with "Sweetie I Love You Live For Daddy Cause I Can See Now Your Stronger Than you ever I ever would be"). Still, Gutierrez's mother told the Times, “I send my condolences to his family — I wouldn’t wish the way I feel today on any mother in this world."
The 28-year-old, who had served in the Army in Kuwait, had recently passed the FDNY exam and was on the waiting list for a job. (He was fired from FedEx two years ago for being in possession of stolen property.) But in his suicide note, he wrote, "If its hard for me to find work out of the army its gonna be 10 times harder if I come out as a felon." An uncle said, "We are suffering now. I just hope that people learn how to get along better in this world.”
