Man wanted in fatal stabbing in clash over Brooklyn MTA bus seat surrenders
The man wanted for fatally stabbing a 41-year-old straphanger on a Brooklyn MTA shuttle bus during an argument over a seat surrendered to authorities and has been charged with murder, police said Wednesday.
Kareem McCalla, 36, turned himself in on Tuesday for the Sunday afternoon knifing on a J90 shuttle bus near Crescent and Etna Sts. in Cypress Hills, cops said.
Police charged McCalla with murder and weapons possession. His arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court was pending.
McCalla, who lives in Richmond Hill, Queens, was on the bus when he got into an argument over a seat with victim Alvin Francis, according to cops.
During the dispute, McCalla pulled a knife and fatally stabbed the father of three in the abdomen.
'[Cops] just said he got into a tussle on the bus,' the victim's wife, Candice Todman-Francis, 36, told the Daily News. 'It's under investigation. I have not one detail. I'm just as lost as everybody else.'
Surveillance video recovered from inside the bus shows McCalla coming onto the bus from the rear door. Francis entered through the same door moments later and sat down next to his killer.
After a few minutes, McCalla stood up and Francis threw a punch at him, according to the source. Both men continued to fight, with the killer going on to stab Francis as the clash escalated.
McCalla fled the bus and remained on the run for two days before his surrender.
Francis was working on Sunday to earn some extra cash for his son's middle school graduation. The shuttle bus runs on the weekend while the J train is out of service.
Todman-Francis spoke to her husband earlier in the day, and the two discussed what they would have for dinner on Mother's Day.
'See you when I get home,' Francis told his wife, who quickly became worried when he didn't show up.
'I hadn't heard from him, so I tracked his phone and I saw him at the precinct. So I called the precinct,' she said, explaining she was worried he'd been arrested.
Officers showed up on her doorstep not long after to deliver the tragic news.
Francis worked as a roofer and his job took him to multiple locations. 'He's a hardworking man,' his wife said. 'Work and home — literally, work and home and his favorite place is Home Depot.'
The two had been together for 21 years, got married five years ago and were planning a vow renewal ceremony for August. They have three sons together.
'Everybody's saddened by it,' a neighbor of the victim in South Jamaica, Queens, said. 'He was a neighborhood guy. Family man. Hardworking.'
'We're just still processing it,' he added. 'It's tough.'
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