NEW YORK – A 26-year-old man was found dead with multiple stab wounds after an explosion Tuesday in the seventh-floor attic of a building in Queens, authorities said.
According to the preliminary investigation, the police believe it was an intentional act and that the victim had been suffering from depression and had been unemployed for the past two months, a senior police official told our sister network News 4.
The man, identified as Anesti Bulgaresti, was found dead after authorities put out the flames that were coming from the top of the building located in 41st Avenue at Woodside just before 10:30 am on Tuesday. No other injuries were reported.
According to the senior police official, Bulgaresti had suffered from vertigo and other medical ailments. He lived with his brother, who was not in the attic at the time of the blast, the official said. A knife was recovered from under Bulgaresti’s body, the senior official added. The case is still under investigation and the forensic doctor has not yet ruled on the cause or manner of Bulgaresti’s death.
The explosion and fire displaced about 40 people living in the building. One resident said the vibration from the blast shook his fifth-floor apartment, so he ran out with just his phone and wallet. It was then that he realized that the building was on fire and that the back wall had collapsed.
The Red Cross said they were helping those who were displaced by the fire.
The case remains under investigation.
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