The Brooklyn bouncer who was stabbed to death while at work last week was trying to aid a female colleague when he was murdered, authorities said.
It seemed like just another shift for 61-year-old Lawrence Hopkins on Feb. 10. He was working a security gig, sitting on a chair eating a plate of chicken wings inside of the Garden Bar and Grill located at 140 Graham Avenue during the early hours of the morning, blissfully unaware of what was about to unfold.
According to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, a female employee of the bar was making her way through the establishment and squeezing by patrons at about 1 a.m. when two men apparently intentionally blocked her path. This reportedly escalated from a shouting match into a shoving match, prompting Lawrence to get involved.
“He gets up to help out this woman employee and while he’s trying to calm the situation down, we have numerous witness statements saying that he’s telling everybody to ‘relax, just chill out.’ One of the males breaks free and stabs him in the neck unprovoked from the side,” Chief Kenny said. “Poor guy never saw it coming.”
Lawrence was stabbed and slashed in multiple areas across his body, the most severe injury of which mortally wounded him via the neck. The stabbing was so brutal the knife lacerated his neck so deep it actually cut through his tongue, Chief Kenny solemnly reported. He also suffered a four-and-a-half-inch deep cut under his right armpit and a stab wound in his chest.
Co-workers attempted to save Lawrence’s life by trying to stop the bleeding until EMs arrived. However, he died a short time later at NYC Health and Hospitals/Woodhull.
Despite the bar being filled with some thirty customers, police say many of them report that they saw very little of the incident, yet most macabre of all they did even less to help the bouncer.
“Some of them actually finished their drinks before stepping past the victim as he was sitting on a bench bleeding out,” Chief…
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