Rocky Widner/NBAE/Getty Images Power forward Taj Gibson posted a message on Instagram with condolences over the death of his cousin, P.J. Avitto, 6, who was stabbed to death in a Brooklyn elevator. The little boy knifed to death by a Brooklyn butcher was mourned Tuesday by a Chicago Bull.
“They killed my lil super man,” power forward Taj Gibson wrote after he posted of photo of his slain cousin, Prince Joshua (P.J.) Avitto on Instagram. “#rippj only two more weeks until your 7 birthday. Tears forever…this can’t be life #foreversuperman #babycuzz.”
The condolences from Gibson came as police redoubled their search for the hulking monster who used a steak knife Sunday to kill 6-year-old P.J. and badly wound his playmate, Mikayla Capers, 7, in an elevator.
Gibson, 28, was born in Brooklyn and attended the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology his freshman year before moving to California. He was drafted by the Bulls in 2009.
Meanwhile, P.J.’s parents headed to the morgue to collect his body as grief settled like a shroud over the Boulevard Houses on Schenck Ave.
His godfather implored police to catch the killer.
“Right now, soon is not fast enough,” said 53-year-old Henry Alston. “Right now! Right now! He needs to be taken off the street.”
Alston, who also lives in the housing project, said the neighborhood is terrified — even with all the extra cops around.
“All the family wants is justice,” he said. “We want him found, convicted, and no other family suffers this kind of tragedy, that’s what the family wants.”
Then, as he recalled P.J., Alston broke down crying.
“It’s a life cut short, he had great potential, he was a great boy, it’s tragic, tragic,” he said. “I just wanted to see him become a man.”
Over at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia, Mikayla was conscious and talking to investigators, Alston said.
“She’s talking in the hospital, which is good, hopefully she continues to get better,” he said. “I believe she gave a description to police.”
Police on Monday released a sketch of the suspect — a heavy-set black man in a gray sweatshirt who may be linked to Friday’s fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Tanaya Grant in the same neighborhood.
P.J. and Mikayla were playing outside Sunday when they were told there were ices waiting for them back in the building, police said.
The kids were already in the elevator when the killer barged inside at 5:50 p.m., police said.
Believed to be in his 20s, the lumbering attacker stabbed both children in the torso on the lift somewhere between the first and fourth floors after telling them to “shut up,” police sources said.
Bruce Cotler for New York Daily News Investigators at the scene where the two children were stabbed in East New York. When the elevator returned to the ground floor, the butcher fled, stumbling at one point, a witness told police.
Mikayla managed to crawl out of the lift, trailing blood as she went, Davis said. P.J. was found inside the blood-soaked compartment.
Both children were rushed to Brookdale University Hospital, where P.J. died.
There were no security cameras in the lobby of the building or in the elevator to record the attack, despite the fact that NYCHA allocated $ 500,000 nearly a year ago to install them.
The Daily News revealed earlier that the agency has been sitting on some $ 45 million in funding for years that was supposed to pay for cameras in high-crime buildings.
P.J.’s funeral and wake will be held starting at 8:30 a.m. Friday at St. Paul’s Community Baptist Church on Hendrix St. in Brooklyn.
The NYPD is offering a $ 12,000 reward for help in arresting the killer and have asked people to call (800) 577-TIPS.
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