NYC bouncer brutally killed helping coworker during bar fight did ‘nothing wrong,’ grieving friends say
A Brooklyn bouncer who was fatally stabbed in the neck when he stepped into a bar fight to help a female coworker did “nothing wrong,” his grieving friends said.
Laurence “Larry” Hopkins, 61, met his end on Feb. 10 after a customer at The Garden Bar and Grill on Graham Avenue viciously stabbed him in the neck — but his killer remained on the loose Wednesday, according to cops and acquiantainces.
“Larry was a good man. He didn’t do nothing wrong,” said Billy Cullum, 36, who affectionately referred to Hopkins as his uncle even though the two aren’t related. “He didn’t deserve to get stabbed like that. He just did his job, took care of the people, made sure everybody was safe. He wasn’t safe that night. His own life was taken.
“You know how people get. They drink, they get testy a little bit,” Cullum told The Post. “Larry just happened to come and tell him, ‘You gotta chill, you can’t do this. So he pulled out a weapon.”
The fight was sparked when a woman who works with Hopkins tried to squeeze by two customers who started arguing with her and blocking her path, cops said.
Hopkins, who was eating chicken wings nearby, got up to break up the clash as it erupted into pushing and shoving, investigators said.
Hopkins was urging everyone to relax when one of the men broke free and stabbed him multiple times, including once in his neck with such force that it cut through to his tongue, police said.
Some patrons heartlessly finished their drinks and stepped around the man as he sat on a bench in his final moments, cops later said.
“Some of them actually finished their drinks before stepping past the victim as he is sitting on a bench bleeding out. Sad state of affairs — at least call 911,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters at a recent briefing.
It was an end the beloved jokester didn’t deserve, Cullum said.
“Larry was a good person,” he said. “I love him, not just because he’s like a family member, but because he was cool. He just went to work one night and some crazy, strange man did that to him.”
“I knew Larry my whole life,” friend Ollie Cameron told The Post. “He told jokes all the time. In a room full of people he had everybody cracking up. He was a good man. He really didn’t deserve this. It really hurts. I hope they catch this man very soon.”
Hopkins’ coworkers did call 911 and tried to save him by administering first aid as they waited for paramedics to arrive, police noted.
Investigators said they have the murder weapon and have released a photo of a person of interest in the murder.
The killer, pictured from video surveillance in the bar that night, is wearing a white baseball cap, a red hoodie and what appears to be a Tommy Hilfiger red, white and blue puffer coat.
So far no arrests have been made in the case.
“It’s sad because it’s been two weeks now, and the killer’s still on the run. I hope they catch him. He took a good person away from me, my uncle, my friend,” Cullum said.
Hopkins’ friends were left to piece together the confusion so often left behind by senseless violence like the kind that killed Hopkins.
“He didn’t come at you aggressive,” Cullum said. “My uncle was doing his job, and the man killed him because was arguing with someone else.”
