Landlord-tenant dispute turns deadly in the Bronx

THROGS NECK, Bronx (WABC) -- A man has been charged after police in the Bronx said a dispute over rent between a landlord and tenant turned deadly.

The way Bronx prosecutors tell it, Taha Mahran, 51, had a deep well of resentment against his tenant Zakir Khan, 44, for failure to pay rent. And Wednesday night, he allegedly confessed, Mahran did something about it.

"Last evening at around 6:30 when he walked in with bloody clothing to the 45 precinct, he stated to the officers there, I just stabbed someone up the block. I told you many times about this and you did nothing about it. I couldn't get help. I had to take matters into my own hands, so I stabbed him," the assistant district attorney said. "This involves the defendant stabbing the deceased approximately 20 times about his body. His torso, his chest area, other parts of his body."

It happened just after sunset on a quiet block in the Throgs Neck section, right in front of the victim's 12-year-old son who witnesses say screamed in horror.

"'Please help. Someone is killing my dad,'" said Abdel Chowdhury, the victim's friend.

Chowdhury is a close family friend who says Khan was a well-known realtor who served the tight knit Bengali community in the east Bronx.

A father of three, he was the subject of a glowing Daily News profile, and contributed heavily to his mosque before, friends say, he fell on hard times and lost his business.

That's why he was renting there in the first place. And, apparently, why he fell behind.

"He was such a smart young man," Chowdhury said.

"It is a big loss for everybody, yeah, it's very sad," said Nazrul Haq, the victim's friend. "This is it, what else can you say?"

But according to prosecutors, the landlord had plenty to say when he turned himself in. Harboring resentment, apparently over that newspaper profile, and a belief Khan had been scheming, to take his home.

"'I'll tell you everything. I was only going to scare him.' He took a video. 'I knew he would own the house.' He was cursing and spitting," the assistant district attorney said. "The defended also stated, 'I trusted him. How could he do this to me? He was from my own country.'"

"I hope he's in a good place right now and whatever he did for the community, we'll remember," Chowdhury said.

Wake and prayer services will be held for Zakir Kahn Friday at 1 p.m. at Parkchester Mosque located at 1203 Virginia Avenue in the Bronx.

Mahran is due back in court on February 28th.