New York City Bus Driver Found Stabbed To Death In Brooklyn Home

A disabled New York City bus driver was found stabbed to death in his Brooklyn apartment Tuesday in what police have deemed a homicide.

The wife and daughter of Otis James, 46, found him dead on the floor of their home in the Bushwick neighborhood with a knife next to his body, the New York Daily News reported. He was bleeding from the torso, according to NBC New York.

Police initially were not sure if the death was a murder or suicide. The NYPD on Wednesday ruled the death a homicide, a spokesman told Oxygen. An autopsy found James had been hit in the back of the head and stabbed several times in the chest, according to the Daily News.

James had worked as a bus driver for the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority as recently as 2017, one of his friends said. A spokesman for the MTA could not immediately confirm James’ employment history with the agency.

“His daughter was screaming, ‘My dad! My dad!’ the friend told the News. “It was awful.”

The eldest of James’ three daughters, Charise James, remembered her father fondly, but expressed frustration at a lack of communication from police.

“My dad was fun. He was beyond fun. He was always smiling. He was a great dad,” she told The Daily News. “The police aren't telling us anything. They won't let us in. It doesn't make any sense.”

A shooting during a trip to the Caribbean had left Jones in a wheelchair a few years ago.

Police have not released any information about a suspect or motive. No arrests have been made.

James’ killing comes after a record-low year for violent crime in New York City — there were 290 homicides in 2017, a number not seen since the 1950’s.

“We got homicides down to a level we have not seen since 1951,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in January, boasting that the “Dodgers were still playing in Ebbets Field” when the murder rate was that low.

[Photo: Getty]