A 19-year-old Brooklyn man — depicted as a crazed murderer after he fatally stabbed two rowdy riders on a downtown subway — is set to be freed after a grand jury heard his riveting account of self-defense yesterday.
Brenddy Garcia, who has been held since the bloody March incident aboard a 2 train, told the Manhattan grand jury that he carried a four-inch folding knife for his own security, attorney Lawrence Fredella said.
Garcia said he had been robbed and severely beaten in a subway in 2006 and then savagely attacked on a Bushwick street in 2007 in an incident that left him in a coma with 275 stitches.
The March 28 stabbings unfolded while he was heading home from a baby shower in The Bronx with a group of friends and was confronted by a group of about 10 thugs.
One tossed a bag of empty beer bottles at Garcia, who said he tried to defuse the situation.
But Ricardo Williams, 24, became irate and tried to attack Garcia, the DA’s office said. Another member of the rowdy group smashed a beer bottle over Garcia’s head, and when his knees buckled, the gang jumped him.
With his clothing yanked over his head so he couldn’t see, Garcia pulled the knife out of his pocket and slashed blindly.
When the train pulled into the Christopher Street station, Garcia and his friends fled. Williams and his friend, Darnell Morel, 24, died of their wounds — and their friends told cops they were innocent victims of an out-of-control Garcia.