Denzel Bimpey was looking forward to coming home for Christmas break to play basketball, see his big family and have some of his mom's cooking, but he never made it there.
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"He just wanted to be back home with his family and friends," the victim's brother Gideon Bimpey said.
The 18-year-old business student, whose smile could light up a room, just finished his first semester of college upstate and was on the road to providing a better life for his family. His big sister was proud.
"'Mommy everything is going to be ok - I'm going to get you a mansion,' like that was his biggest dream to get us out of here," Bimpey's sister Godslove Nti said.
It all came to a tragic end Friday night. Bimpey and his friends just got back to the city after a long bus ride from Syracuse and were grabbing their luggage when police say a fight broke out with another group.
"To me it doesn't even make sense man," Gideon Bimpey said. "He was probably off the bus no more than five minutes when the whole thing went down.
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Police say the suspects, who attend SUNY Onondaga, believed to be reputed Harlem gang members, asked Bimpey and his two friends from SUNY Morrisville what block they were from. To which Bimpey replied, "we're not in a gang."
Police say he was trying to de-escalate a situation that turned violent. Bimpey was stabbed three times. Police say he was mistaken for a rival gang member. His family says he wasn't involved in street life.
"He wasn't and that's all I have to say. Justice is going to prevail - we know it. We know it," Nti said.
Bimpey, a big basketball fan and loving son, suffered an eight-inch puncture wound to the chest.
He tried to run away with his friends but collapsed near Park Avenue South and East 26th Street in Manhattan.
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His siblings are not prepared to spend their first Christmas without him.
"Everything about him, from his big eyes to big smile, everything about him was big. His heart was big," Nti said.
Police have gotten surveillance video from the bus depot in Syracuse, and they have identified three persons of interest they are looking for.
No arrests have been made so far.
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