Stabbing Victim, Murdered at Shelter, Dies in His Husband's Arms; Suspect Hurled Homophobic Slurs

The bereaved husband of a man stabbed to death outside a New York homeless shelter says the suspect harassed and threatened him and his husband long before the slaying, and spoke to the pain of his tragic loss.

The suspect, Kayjon Yizar, was arrested "on Wednesday [Dec. 25] and charged him with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon" in connection with the slaying, the New York Daily News reported.

The victim, Arkmayer Davis, and the suspect, as well as the victim's husband, Darin Davis, were all staying at the shelter after the apartment building where they lived was destroyed by a fire

Daris Davis "said the last time he spoke to his husband was at a Morris Heights laundromat shortly before the stabbing," the Daily News recounted, "and that the next time he saw Arkmayer he was bloodied and unconscious inside the room they shared at the shelter."

Davis described a terrifying situation in which he "tried to wake [Arkmayer] up," but "he wasn't moving."

"I looked at his stomach," Davis told the newspaper. "He wasn't breathing, and I could tell you he had no pulse.... He bled out and died on the floor right there."

"The victim had been stabbed repeatedly in the arm, leg, and torso, cops said," the Daily News relayed.

Davis said that Yizar, who lived below them in the apartment building, "blamed him for the fire, which began inside the apartment he shared with the victim," the Daily News recounted.

But Davis also claimed Yizar had harassed the couple well before the fire ever happened, hurling homophobic slurs and threats at them.

"The man came out the window and was like 'Get the fuck away from my fucking window before I put a .22 slugger in your ass you fucking faggot,'" Davis recounted to the Daily News. "Then he said, 'I'm tired of y'all faggots.'"

Davis theorized that Yizar intended to attack him, not Arkmayer, saying that Yizar "kept getting [them] confused."

The three men had been at the shelter for three weeks, the account detailed, when the stabbing took place. Davis described how "he worked with police to identify Yizar from surveillance footage of the stabbing outside the E. Tremont Ave. homeless shelter," the Daily News reported, "and testified to the victim's history with his alleged killer in front of a grand jury Thursday [Dec. 26]."

Davis also "said footage of the stabbing was shown in court, but the video was stopped right before the stabbing after he broke down and wept," the account relayed.

Davis expressed the wish that, if he's convicted, Yizar's punishment would fit the crime of having allegedly deprived him of his life partner.

"I feel like he should get the death penalty and, if not, life in prison and without no parole," Davis declared. "He should be in a single cell, by himself, isolated from everybody, so he can see how lonely it is and miserable it is to be by yourself."