Brooklyn church choir singer fatally stabbed after clash over neighbor’s loud music

A beloved Brooklyn church choir singer was stabbed to death on his daily walk to buy the newspaper by a next-door neighbor he had clashed with over loud music, according to cops and prosecutors.

Nathaniel Thomas III was knifed multiple times in the head and torso near Avenue K and E. 53rd St. in Flatlands at about 8 a.m. Wednesday, cops said.

Thomas, 45, the sole caregiver for his ailing mother and her only child, was out on his daily walk six blocks from the home they shared when he was killed. He was walking to buy the newspaper, a habit he picked up from his late father.

“There’s nothing no one can say or do because this young man never messed with anyone — that wasn’t his M.O.,” said Thomas’ cousin, who gave her name as Bernice, 65.

“He always showed everybody love so for somebody to hurt him, to kill him and take him from his mother, that’s ridiculous.”

“He’d get up and pick up the paper every morning, but this is what his father did. He followed the ritual of his dad. His dad used to get up every morning and go get the paper, and he did the same thing after his father passed,” Bernice said.

Police arrested the victim’s next-door neighbor Shakel Maldonado, 24, for murder and weapon possession a year after they clashed over the accused killer blasting music, disturbing the victim’s ailing mom.

A witness to to the aftermath of the fatal stabbing told the Daily News he saw “a deranged guy walking back and forth with a knife in his hands” whom cops took into custody.

According to police, an argument between Thomas and Maldonado at the victim’s home on April 9. 2023, boiled over when Maldonado nearly slapped Thomas. When cops responded, Maldonado vowed he would “get” Thomas, the victim’s family says.

Thomas said his cousin was shaken by the encounter.

“He said, ‘The guy kicked my door,’” Bernice recalled. “He said, ‘I don’t know what to do. He kicked the door. All I asked him was to turn the music off. My mom wasn’t feeling well’.”

Thomas did not want to press charges, and Maldonado was taken to a hospital for psychiatric violation rather than jail, Thomas’ family says. The criminal complain against Maldonado for murder notes the victim previously filed a harassment complaint against him.

“He told him he was going to get him, but [Thomas] didn’t think anything else about it,” said Juanita Anderson, Thomas’ aunt.

Thomas had his mind on other matters.

“He loved his family,” Anderson said. “He loved music. He loved the arts. He loved God. He loved his mother.”

The suspect’s grandfather, who declined to share his name for publication, was in tears when he spoke to The News of the slaying.

“This is very sad,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what happened between them. But I feel so sorry for what happened because life is so important. It’s the gift of God,”

The grandfather said Maldonado had attended three years of college upstate as a journalism student but hadn’t returned to school.

Next-door, Thomas’ relatives, gathered on the porch of the family home Sunday, were reeling at his sudden slaying.

“Heartbroken. Destroyed feelings. I’m all over the place. That was my favorite cousin,” said Dainty Carr, 31. “We loved him. He loved us like sisters. We was like his little sisters because he didn’t have no sisters. He has a lot of girl cousins.”

Another of Thomas’ cousins said the family hasn’t had the heart to tell the victim’s mother how her son had died.

“We had to tell her that Nathaniel is not with us and is up in heaven, and that he passed in the hospital,” said Wayne Huston, 50. “We didn’t go into the details of how he died.”

Huston could barely process the death himself.

“I opened my mouth, and I couldn’t say a word,” he said of when he heard the news. “I just froze, I couldn’t say anything.”

Huston’s mother was also murdered by a neighbor.

According to Georgia radio station WDUN, 19-year-old Albert Lee King killed Leila Huston, 51, on Sept. 10, 2003, by strangling her with a do-rag in her front yard after Huston accused the teen of stealing $1,300 from her home. King was sentenced to life in prison the following year.

“It reminded me of when my mom got killed,” Huston said of Thomas’ shock slaying. “He was murdered almost 21 years later like my mom was murdered. Not in the same manner, but he was taken like she was taken.”

Thomas memorialized his aunt’s murder in a Facebook post last year. “It hurt me profusely because she believed in me,” he wrote, noting that she was a church choir singer like him. “[She] had an infectious laugh and sense of humor and made me some cool cousins, and then life took her away from me.”

Thomas was a longtime fixture at the Love Fellowship Tabernacle in East New York.

“The church is grieving,” said Elaine Frazier, 61, the church’s chief operating officer. “Our heart is grieving that such a young man, a kind man’s life was taken. … He was taking care of his mom. He was an extremely decent young man.”

“We’re astonished this happened,” added Nadine Simmons, one of his many church friends. “He was a kind, considerate, loving, gentle person.”

Parishioners felt Thomas’ absence at Sunday’s service.

“I was in total shock and surprised. It was just unbelievable,” said Frank Patterson, the head of security at the house of worship.

“He was a man’s man. He was a great guy. He was a great man of God. He served, he sang. … He was a solid member here for years.”

Parishioners said he had attended the church since childhood, when he took an early interest in singing. The church is led by gospel star Hezekiah Walker, whom Thomas performed and recorded with, friends say.

“He was very quiet and attentive. He would always give me hugs,” said Mary, a fellow member of the choir. “He was a good singer. He was passionate about that.”

Maldonado, who cops say has no criminal history, was ordered held without bail after he pleaded not guilty during his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court Friday.

“I think he needs to get life,” Thomas’ cousin Bernice said of Maldonado. “He took a life. … There’s nothing that can happen that’s going to bring my cousin back.”

Thomas’ final post on Facebook was made less than 24 hours before his death.

“GOD I wanna thank and praise you for being willing and able to meet every need and make anything that’s wrong right again,” he wrote. “Amen.”

With Kerry Burke and John Annese

Originally Published: August 12, 2024 at 5:39 p.m.