A Brooklyn husband and wife have been murdered in a brutal stabbing in their front yard.
Stephenson Bonaparte and his wife Hazel Brown were attacked as they entered their home in Prospect Leffert Gardens on Wednesday night at 6.41pm.
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.
Bonaparte, 65, collapsed in the front yard, dropping his bag of groceries on the ground.
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
His 59-year-old 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.
NYPD officers are at a loss over what may have caused the killing. A spokesman told DailyMail.com on Thursday morning that they still had not established a motive or been able to identify a suspect.
The attack was first reported as a robbery, but it is not clear if the assailant stole anything.
Officials are also looking into whether it may have had to do with an argument the couple had with a disgruntled customer earlier in the day at their store, according to The New York Post.
The couple was Christian. King Solomon is a prominent figure in Judaism.
It is not clear if their store sold only Christian goods or if it was multi-faith.
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 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
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.
He described the scene as ‘bloody, like movie bloody’, and 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?’ 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.