Four Family Members Found Stabbed to Death in Brooklyn Apartment; Relative Detained

Four members of one Brooklyn family, among them two small children, were found stabbed to death in their Bensonhurst apartment, the NYPD said on Saturday, July 20, 2024. A relative believed to be the children's uncle was being held and questioned.

According to police, the attacker left his mother dead in a pool of blood in the living room. He is accused of wrapping his sister-in-law's body in a sheet and putting the two children's bodies into laundry bags in a closet before leaving the apartment.

The discovery was made by the suspect's brother, the children's father, who came home to the first-floor unit in a six-story building on W. 8th St. near Ave. P at about 10:15 p.m. Friday. Near the apartment door, he told police, he ran into his sibling in the hallway, scratched and covered in blood.

When he asked where their mother was, the man mumbled something like "Go find her," police said, and then left the building. Inside, the father found his mother, 56-year-old Fayzieva Mavlyuda, dead from multiple stab wounds to the neck.

He called 911 to report her death and said he could not find his wife and two children, who should have been home. Officers who responded found his wife, 27-year-old Maftuna Khakimova, stabbed to death in a bedroom and wrapped in a sheet. The bodies of 5-year-old Kamila Shavkatova and her 4-year-old brother, Timur, were in the closet of another bedroom, stuffed into laundry bags. Police said all of the victims had been stabbed.

Neighbors said the father was seen outside the building sobbing as relatives tried to comfort him. "The father was outside crying a lot. His whole world is destroyed, he lost his mother, his wife, and kids," said Jennifer Ponzi, who lives on the fifth floor.

While officers were still at the scene, the suspect returned home and was taken into custody. Criminal charges were pending. Investigators had not found the murder weapon and believe he may have discarded it after leaving the home. Detectives think the killings stemmed from an ongoing domestic dispute.

Residents said the building is home to many Uzbek, Russian and Georgian families. Several neighbors said they were shaken. Juan Perez, 35, said residents first assumed the yellow tape was related to the death of an elderly woman they often saw out front. "You don't ever want to hear that," he said. "No one deserves that. I have kids, and you don't want to hear that happen to kids."

It was the second time this month that police responded to a scene in which someone fatally stabbed relatives. On July 4, officers shot and killed a 20-year-old Queens man who had stabbed his 8-year-old stepbrother to death and was holding a knife to his father's neck when they arrived.