Bronx Tenant Stabs Landlord over Mattress

Photo credit/ Schwartz for News 37-year-old George Shim was stabbed

By Alicia Cruz, Editor-in-Chief, Theblackurbantimes

A spare mattress led a Bronx man to stab his landlord to death earlier today in his Northern Bronx apartment. When 37-year-old landlord, George (Dennis) Shim arrived home from his livery cab shift just before 2 a.m, he found his fiancée and tenant, Omari Richards, engaged in a screaming match with one another over a spare mattress the tenant claimed the fiancée refused to allow him use of.

"My boyfriend heard him cussing me," Shim's fiancee said. "He told him, 'Why are you disrespecting my woman?"

The fiancée stated she did tell the Richards that he could not use the mattress because her son was coming to visit and she needed the mattress, but thatRichards did not believe her.

Shim's fiancée says she heard Richards yelling at Shim, "She's a f------ liar." The fiancée then went downstairs where she began yelling at Richards and called him "monkey face" which served to escalate the incident.

Photo credit/ Getty Images

The fiancée says she begged Shim not to approach the crazed Richards, but despite her protests, Shim went downstairs to confront him anyway. Within moments of Shim's being in the basement apartment,Richards plunged a kitchen knife into his torso.

"He was running back up the stairs - I saw the knife sticking out," said Shim's fiancée, who declined to give her name. "He collapsed right on the steps." As paramedics rushed Shim to the hospital, police arrived to take the knife wieldingRichards into custody.

"He's a good person, kind, always helping everybody," his fiancée said through tears.

"He's always laughing, making people laugh."

Shim, who has three teenage children from another relationship, was described as an affable jokester who typically steered clear of confrontation.

"He would come and run a lot of jokes with you," said pal Robert Powell, 53, of Wakefield.

"He's not a troublemaker. He would say 'hi' and go on his way. I was shocked. It's so sad."

Shim, a livery cab driver, was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at about 2:15 a.m., NYPD said.