The Brooklyn couple murdered on their doorstep may have been targeted by a furious customer who bought ‘a hex from them that didn’t work,’ The Daily News reported.
Stephenson Bonaparte, 65, and his wife Hazel Brown, 59, were attacked as they entered their home in Prospect Leffert Gardens on Wednesday night at 6.41pm.
Police have said that the motive of the attacker could be that the pair sold a curse or hex to the person who was disappointed ‘by its potency.’
Stephenson Bonaparte and his wife Hazel Brown were stabbed to death by a masked attacker in the front yard of their home in Prospect Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn on Wednesday night at 6.40pm. This was the scene immediately afterwards
‘I could see a scenario where maybe someone got ticked off and there maybe might have been a bad magic there,’ the couple’s bankruptcy lawyer, Raymond Ragues, told the Daily News.
‘They did have a funny kind of business — a little occult shop. If you had love problems, you get a soap, if you money problems, you get this the candle,’ Ragues said.
Apparently Bonaparte and Brown both had money troubles.
He filed for bankruptcy in 2015, reporting expenses totaling around $2,200 a month and only $1,100 in earnings and she filed for bankruptcy last February, with debts totaling about $45,000.
The couple own a religious goods store two miles away and had walked home after going grocery shopping.
The masked attacker stabbed them both in the neck then fled. A neighbor, who identified himself only as Tony, described the scene as ‘bloody, like movie bloody’.
Bonaparte collapsed in the front yard, dropping his bag of groceries on the ground.
His wife was able to stumble inside the house where their adult daughter and her two-year-old daughter were.
The older couple lived on the bottom floor of the house and their daughter lives on the second with her daughter and boyfriend.
The daughter, who has not been named, called 911 then fled to a neighbor’s house.
By the time police arrived at the scene, Mrs Brown had died.
Her husband was taken to hospital but he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead shortly after being admitted.
This is the couple’s home in Brooklyn in daylight. Bonaparte collapsed int he front yard and his groceries fell around him. His wife stumbled inside, where their daughter was upstairs, and she called 911. By the time police arrived, the wife was dead. Her husband was taken to hospital but was later pronounced dead
The attack was first reported as a robbery, but it is not clear if the assailant stole anything.
The couple originally hail from Trinidad and were described by neighbors and others in the community as ‘good, hardworking’ people.
‘They were very loving to each other,’ a neighbor, who gave his name only as Tony, told The New York Times.
He ran outside to find Bonaparte lying in his blood in the front yard with a spilled bottle of orange juice which had fallen out of the grocery bag lying nearby.
The couple owned King Soloman Religious Goods store nearby. They were Christian and originally from Trinidad. Police are looking in to whether their deaths may be connected to an argument they had with a customer earlier in the day
He said: ‘He couldn’t talk. I think blood was in his lungs.’
Mohammed Rashed, who works at a deli next door to the couple’s store, said Mr. Bonaparte was a ‘gentleman’ who came into his store three times a day to buy a peppermint tea.
‘Why would anyone want to do that?’ he said.
The grandfather was referred to affectionately by neighbors and others in the community as ‘Pastor Steve’.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.