Horse-drawn hearse delivers body of murdered Central Park carriage horse driver to funeral
BROOKLYN (WABC) -- A funeral was held for a Central Park carriage horse driver who tried to break up a fight as he was leaving a bar before he was stabbed and killed.
A mass was held for Anthony D'Onofrio at St. Finbar Roman Catholic Church on 20th Street on Thursday.
The 22-year-old died on January 29 after he was stabbed in the chest during what police described as a 'large dispute' outside a restaurant in Bay Ridge.
Just before 4 a.m., police officers found D'Onofrio and another 22-year-old man who had suffered a slash wound to the head outside Catrinas Mexican Grill on 3rd Avenue.
Both were taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn where D'Onofrio was pronounced dead.
The next day, 19-year-old Kevin Cuatlacuatl was arrested.
He's facing murder and criminal possession of a weapon charges.
D'Onofrio was born in Brooklyn and had been a part of the city's carriage horse driver community since he was eight years old and followed his father into the historic horse-carriage trade.
D'Onofrio's friends said he loved to fly planes and was a vintage car enthusiast in addition to volunteering at a farm in Pennsylvania.
"Selfless, always put everyone above him, didn't matter if he was tired, if it were two degrees or 100, he was always there for you," D'Onofrio's friend Tom Seyfried said.
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