Police have charged a Bronx man with murder following a fatal daytime stabbing that claimed the life of a 53-year-old security guard walking to work in Mott Haven, an attack investigators say was random and unprovoked.
Sean Jones, 38, was reportedly taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon in the killing of George Ennin. Authorities state that the two men were not acquainted.
Ennin, a father of two who worked security, had just returned from a month-long visit to Ghana and was leaving his apartment shortly before 2 p.m. Monday when the encounter unfolded along Third Avenue near East 157th Street. Surveillance footage reviewed by police shows a man approaching from the opposite direction and attempting to kick Ennin. After Ennin blocked the blow, the suspect stumbled, recovered, and pursued him with a knife.
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As Ennin backed away, he tripped on uneven pavement and fell. The video captures the moments leading up to the stabbing. Afterward, Ennin managed to get to his feet and move down the sidewalk seeking help before collapsing less than a minute later. He later died from his injuries.
Neighbors described Ennin as a steady presence in the community and a devoted parent. “This man was one in a million, he was a diamond in the rough,” said Michele King, who lives nearby. “He raised two daughters single handedly.”
King said Ennin took pride in how he carried himself. “Well-dressed, good-looking man, smelled good,” she said. “So, when you see a man like that, you want to kiss the ground he walked.”
Another neighbor, identified as Louis, said the violence was difficult to comprehend. “The nature of what happened to George is gruesome,” he said.
Perry, who lives in the area, said he encountered the scene without realizing who the victim was. “I didn’t know who it was. I just, when I was walking to go to the pharmacy, I saw it,” he said. “I just walked around it. I didn’t know it was him.”
King said Ennin worked his way up after starting at a local supermarket. “He made a home for those two girls. They’re college bound; they’re A students,” she said. “He started over here at the supermarket and from that, he went on to do security.”
Police said Jones, an apparent stranger, attacked without warning. He pleaded not guilty Friday night and is being held without bail.
The loss has devastated Ennin’s family. His 18-year-old daughter, Nana Yaa Fosua Ennin, broke down as she spoke about her father days after the killing. “He was the best dad,” she said.
“I just keep crying,” she added. “I didn’t even get to touch him. I didn’t get to feel him and I just keep crying and I don’t even know what to do. I just wish I could at least hug him physically.”
She last spoke with her father two days before his death while visiting an aunt in Maryland. “It’s so sad to see him gone too soon,” she said. “It was not his time to go at all, and someone just cut his life short.”
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Ennin was the eldest of six siblings. His sister Lucy Adusei, 42, a psychiatric nurse, criticized New York’s criminal justice system and questioned how Jones, whom police described as a repeat offender with prior violent assaults, was free.
“I think New York law is too lenient with people like this,” she said.
“Sometimes people do it knowingly, they know exactly what they’re doing but they pretend that once the issue happens it’s a psychiatric issue,” she added. “I’m a psychiatric nurse. Sometimes they do these things on purpose.”
Adusei said the family is seeking accountability. “If it was up to me the death sentence would be good for him,” she said, acknowledging that New York does not have capital punishment.
“The ironic part of it is that even if it’s life imprisonment, you know what? I’m still gonna work and my taxes are going to feed him,” she said to The Post.
She said the surveillance video has left a permanent mark. “The video is registered in my mind,” she said. “I cannot erase the video, it’s stuck in my memory. It will be there forever.”
Another sister, Regina Adusei Brenfaah, 46, said she struggled to deliver the news to their mother and siblings. “I said, ‘No, it’s not George, it’s not George, he had no enemies!’” she recalled.
Sister Anatasia Brentuo, 52, remembered receiving the call. “‘Our brother is gone, he’s gone, somebody stabbed him, he’s dead!’” she recalled hearing. “I said, ‘No, no, it’s not true.’”
“This was hard to believe,” Brentuo said. “My mother called me, she said, ‘I’m dying here, I’m dying here.’”
Brentuo described her brother as a man of faith who came from Ghana seeking opportunity. “He was a good father, a single father, a single parent, raising his two girls,” she said. “He loved them very much.”
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