Mayor de Blasio unleashed a blistering attack on the city Housing Authority Tuesday over the lack of surveillance cameras in the building where a 6-year-old boy was killed and another child wounded.
It’s “unacceptable bureaucracy. It’s as simple as that,’’ de Blasio seethed when asked why there were no cameras in the Brooklyn public-housing building — and many others — despite millions of dollars in approved funding.
The New York City Housing Authority was “sitting on the money for a variety of reasons’’ — all of which were part of “a bad strategic decision,’’ the mayor said.
“I understand cameras are not a panacea, but they’re part of the process of fighting crime,” de Blasio said as NYPD cops continue to hunt for the maniac who killed little Prince Joshua “PJ’’ Avitto, stabbed his playmate and is suspected of murdering an 18-year-old woman.
NYPD detectives brought flowers and stuffed animals to their best witness in the Brooklyn butcher case — a little girl left critically wounded in the attack. Cops want to re-interview Mikayla Capers, 7, who has been hospitalized since she and PJ were randomly stabbed in their East New York building.
“They feel the kid could ID this guy,’’ a poliece source said.
But “she is still kind of out of it,” another source added of Mikayla, who suffered a collapsed lung, a punctured spleen and other defensive wounds on her torso and left arm.
“She wasn’t really up to talking,” the source said. “We might have to try again later. We don’t want to push her.’’
The child’s great grandmother, Regina Trevathan, 62, said, “There are over 16 stab wounds’’ on her body.
“She’s not able to talk, she is still critical,’’ said Trevathan, a retired city Correction officer.
Cops believe that the children’s attacker is the same fiend who fatally knifed Tanaya Grant Copeland, 18, just blocks away two days earlier.
Police brass, frustrated by the lack of solid leads, are forming a special task force — pulling top detectives from various precincts — to work on the case, sources said.
Cops released a sketch of the suspected killer Monday — and PJ’s dad, Nicholas Avitto, said Tuesday that he recognized him.
“I’ve seen him in the hallway. He’s homeless. I think he had a relative in here that may have passed away,’’ Avitto said.
“People in my building used to serve him meals. Me and my son used to come past him.”
Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli, Priscilla DeGregory and Kate Sheehy