A knife-wielding ex-con got a deadly taste of his own medicine late last week courtesy of the victim he robbed, fought, bit, and stabbed in Brooklyn, the New York Daily News reported.
Dan Costume, 34 — who was released from prison in 2024 — entered a stranger’s apartment in Flatbush through an unlocked door late Friday night, law enforcement sources and the victim told the paper.
‘He was acting in self-defense.’
The 45-year-old tenant spoke to the Daily News in Spanish, telling the paper that he had just come home from playing soccer. But the tenant’s wife had departed their apartment on Avenue D near East 31st Street to run an errand — and left the door unlocked, the Daily News said.
When the tenant emerged from the bathroom, he caught Costume stealing two cell phones, a laptop, and other belongings, the tenant told the paper.
“He was in shock that there was a random person in his house,” a relative of the tenant told the Daily News in English as she listened to the tenant’s account in Spanish.
The tenant wrapped his arms around the intruder from behind to try to get him to drop the stolen goods, the relative told the paper.
“They started battling between each other,” the relative added to the Daily News.
Costume bit the tenant’s hands and cheek, then pulled out a knife from his pocket and stabbed the tenant in the back of the neck, the tenant told the paper.
Then the victim reportedly turned the tables on the robber.
Sources told the Daily News that the tenant was able to disarm Costume and use the robber’s own knife to stab Costume in his thigh and lower back.
The tenant then shoved Costume out of the apartment and into the hallway, the paper said, adding that the burglar fled down a stairwell and out of the building, dripping blood as he dropped the stolen property.
Costume collapsed outside the building, the Daily News said, and medics rushed him to Kings County Hospital where he died.
The tenant was treated at the same hospital and released, the paper added.
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Kyle Mazza/Anadolu/Getty Images
A bruise and teeth marks were still visible on the tenant’s cheek days later, the Daily News reported, adding that the victim needed medical staples to close two gashes in his neck and on the back of his head.
“He was acting in self-defense,” the tenant’s relative told the paper. “Everything happened so fast.”
The Daily News, citing sources, said prosecutors decided not to charge the tenant after reviewing the case because he acted in self-defense.
Costume’s father and sister told the paper they haven’t seen much of him since he left home at age 18, noting that he was in and out of the criminal justice system.
Costume’s family members added to the Daily News that police had come looking for him several times before they knocked on their door Saturday to notify them of his death.
Costume was conditionally released from prison on parole in October 2024 after serving a one-and-a-half to three-year sentence for a Brooklyn attempted burglary conviction, the paper said, citing public records.
The tenant who killed Costume viewed surveillance video showing Costume getting into the apartment building through a back door near where garbage is kept, the Daily News reported.
The tenant also is in “a lot of pain,” a relative told the paper, as he recovers from the wounds he suffered during the fight with Costume.
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