A weekend Grindr meetup in the Bronx turned into a deadly, bloody nightmare on September 27 when a 50-year-old man allegedly used a machete to murder a guy he met on the dating app.
Juan Alonso is accused of murdering the victim — who has yet to be identified — at his second floor apartment at 315 East 206 Street between Perry Avenue and Bainbridge Avenue in the Norwood section of the Bronx, police told Gay City News.
The New York Post, citing police sources, reported that Alonso’s roommate walked in and discovered Alonso holding a machete while hovering over the victim’s dead body. Cops told Gay City News they arrived shortly after 7 p.m. and found the victim face down with slash wounds on his head and back. They took Alonso into custody and subsequently charged him with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon.
While it is not clear whether Alonso and the victim knew each other — or what exactly led to the brutal murder — the New York Post reported that investigators are looking into whether there was a “dispute over not liking certain sex activities.”
Alonso also underwent a psychiatric evaluation after he was taken into custody, according to reports, and the status of his mental health is unknown.
One of Alonso’s friends, Cathy Lopez, told the Daily News that Alonso told her he welcomed roommates into his home so he could afford to pay rent. However, he told her those roommates abused him.
“He must have been pushed to the edge,” Lopez told the Daily News.
There have been several stabbing incidents involving LGBTQ victims throughout the year. A queer Black man was killed in Far Rockaway on Labor Day by a man who allegedly hurled anti-LGBTQ slurs at him before stabbing him to death, and a 32-year-old Black transgender woman later identified as Tiffany Harris was fatally stabbed at a Bronx apartment on July 26.
The Grindr meetup gone wrong follows another local gruesome incident that originated on a dating app in January. A 24-year-old Oklahoma man, Alex Ray Scott, was charged with second-degree murder killing a 64-year-old antiques dealer, Kenneth Savinski, in the victim’s apartment at 120 East 83rd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues in Manhattan.
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