NEW YORK – The homeless man lay face down, unmoving, on the sidewalk outside an apartment building, blood from knife wounds pooling underneath his body.

One person passed by in the early morning. Then another, and another. Video footage from a surveillance camera shows at least seven people going by, some turning their heads to look, others stopping to gawk. One even lifted the homeless man's body, exposing what appeared to be blood on the sidewalk underneath him, before walking away.

It wasn't until after the 31-year-old Guatemalan immigrant had been lying there for nearly an hour that emergency workers arrived, and by then, it was too late. Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax — who police said was stabbed while intervening to help a woman being attacked — had died.

"I think it's horrific," said Marla Cohan, who teaches at P.S. 82, a school across the street from where Tale-Yax died. "I think people are just afraid to step in; they don't want to get involved; who knows what their reasons are?"

Tale-Yax was walking behind a man and a woman on 144th Street in the Jamaica section of Queens around 6 a.m. April 18 when the couple got into a fight that became physical, according to police, who pieced together what happened from surveillance footage and interviews with area residents.

Tale-Yax was stabbed several times when he intervened to help the woman, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. She and the other man fled in different directions, and Tale-Yax pursued the man before collapsing. Authorities are searching for the man and woman.

A 911 call of a woman screaming came in around 6 a.m., but when officers responded to the address that was given, no one was there, police said. Another call came in around 7 a.m., saying a man was lying on the street, but gave the wrong address. Finally, around 7:20 a.m., someone called 911 to report a man had possibly been stabbed at 144th Street and 88th Road.

Police and firefighters arrived a few minutes later to find Tale-Yax dead. Officials say they're not sure whether the man was still alive when passers-by opted not to help him.

Residents who regularly pass by the same stretch of sidewalk, in a working-class neighborhood of low-rise apartment buildings and fast food restaurants near a busy boulevard, were unnerved by the way Tale-Yax died.

"Is anybody human anymore?" asked Raechelle Groce, visiting her grandmother at a nearby building on Monday. "What's wrong with humanity?"

In the urban environment, it's not unusual to see people on the street, sleeping or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

But even assuming the person they've just passed is drunk, instead of injured, is no reason not to notify authorities, said Seth Herman, another teacher at the school. He remembered calling an ambulance when seeing a man who appeared to be homeless on the street, with a beer bottle near by.

He called 911, he said, because "I felt it wasn't my job to figure out if the person was drunk or actually hurt."

Groce agreed.

"I just think that's horrible, whether you're homeless or not," she said. "He's a human being; he needs help."

___

Source & Video Of Injured Samaritan: By Associated Press Writer Deepti Hajela - Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100427/ap_ ... nd_ignored

Sadly, I...

I don't know...

As completely messed up as this whole thing is, it's nothing new.

Not in NYC, not anywhere. It brings to mind one of the most famous incidents of the "bystander effect" -- the murder of Kitty Genovese.

From wikipedia:


The full article is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genovese

Like I said, this isn't a new phenomenon. It's apparently human nature.

That doesn't make it acceptable. Something like this seems beyond repugnant to me. But on the other hand, I can't say how I would react, given a similar situation. I would like to think I'd step in and help, if at all possible...you know, at least check for a pulse and call an ambulance.

Then again -- playing Devil's Advocate here -- you also never know when someone who appears to be injured is only playing possum in an attempt to say, mug the next passer-by that tries to help. So I can kind of see where people would be reluctant to lend assistance. I guess. Although the chances of encountering someone twisted enough to fake a serious injury for the sole purpose of ambushing you seem fairly slim...

I dunno. People suck, and I guess they always have.

How sad. This disturbs me deeply.
My mind cannot wrap around how people didnt help???

People these days seem to be so caught up in themselves & their egos that they now lack empathy,compassion & selflessness.(not everyone, we have so many heroes out there.)

This really hurts me.

Here in Florida (breeding ground for wack job preditors.) There was a string of violent attacks on the homeless community. Teens were going around beating them.
......
I cant write anymore on this, it deeply bothers me!

I watched the video on it earlier. Sad, but that's the risk you take living in or near heavily populated cities.

Human, yes most people are very human I'd say.

Few people strive to be Super Human anymore though. The thought of being more than common, more than weak, more than a victim in a world of victims is beyond most people. Super Human is not about strength though the Super Human strives to be strong. It is not about superior intellect though the Super Human strives to be above the norm in education. It is about being the better person. The man who after a good fight lost says "you got me" or after a hard one race in which they win says "you put up a good effort" the human being who see's his fellow laying dieing and says not "Someone should do something about this" but "I should do something about this."

Super Human is very egotistical, and in a world that shuns the Ego, Self, I, Glory, Strength, Power, and Indomitable spirit it is a thing that will be seen less and less. For Strength, Power, and Glory come from the I, the Self, and the Ego. We learned much from our Taoist friends, and we forgot much in the process. We forgot much of what made us indomitable and have learned what made them much easier controlled.

That is my take on it.

I can only echo what's already been said...

It's just so very sad...

Kate Soulstar

It is like that everywhere. We are surrounded by cowards. Rather than risk interaction with a stranger, they would let someone be a vagrant on their streets than give them a warm place to stay, or let some one bleed out in a gutter than make a simple phone call.

It is not even being a super man. You don't even have to put yourself in harms way. My brother once saved someone getting jumped by like 12 kids by simply sticking his head out a door and saying something about the cops being called. Everyone else he was with were just going to sit there and watch as that person got their ass kicked.

Is it that we are too scared of the need to interact with strangers? Is it that we are just dont care? Do we think someone else will do it?

Being a knight is KNOWING someone else will NOT do it. It is knowing it is up to you and that even if someone is calling, it never hurts to have more than one person call or help. Don't worry about getting in the way unless there is a hazard or you are asked to leave.

Courage People!

You are right Andy. However, being a knight also takes the next person into consideration. Such as the case with this Guatemalan immigrant, he can no longer help anyone. There has to be discernment of how best to help.

Actions must:

1) Truly help the person. Often not helping is the best way; think of all the challenges that spurred and facilitated our growth.
2) Help without causing too much* injury to self. A millionaire that donates his/her last penny to charity soon becomes a liability to the same organization s/he championed.
3) Not conflict with the common good. At one point it time, Hitler wasn't a widely known name and he didn't change that alone.

*What is too much? It's up for everyone to decide for themselves. While those on the helping-more extreme will eventually have their ability to stay there diminished, those on the helping-less extreme fight the current of becoming victims themselves. Neither will realize their potential to facilitate change as one gets shut down by limitations and the other doesn't build on their abilities. For both, balance is needed.

Macro-cosmically, metropolises are profit machines. So, it doesn't surprise me at all to see their preferences within this polarity. It's not a matter of courage, but of their definition of progress. Of which, many more would die if they weren't that way to some extent.

Talking with Master Bane over the telephone earlier today, (and taking nothing away from the tragedy of this story) I marveled at the punctuality of the universe. Consider that every choice and action this man ever made in his life culminated in a series of events and happenings that situated him at the exact time and place to aid this woman...to fullfil his purpose and then depart.

Its sickening...the actions (or lack of actions), of those passing by...but this story as a cosmic touch...at least for me any way. This man realized his destiney and then he departed this life. If this is so...then I wonder who the woman is and how she will contribute to the flow of things?

Me...I would have stopped. You see some one laying on the sidewalk in a pool of blood, you stop.