Police are searching for two suspects in the stabbing death.
The alley to the left of this Cumberland Street home in the North End is where Connecticut resident Carlos Beslanga was killed Saturday, making him Springfield's eighth homicide victim of the year.SPRINGFIELD – Mayra Padilla had a hard time listing the many things that made her fiancee a good man.
He was a hard-worker who provided for his family. He was a good son who would help his mother with yard work. He was a devoted father who would attend as many school events for his children as he could. He would even change diapers and do late-night feedings for the baby.
Saturday, Carlos Gonzalez Beslanga, 32, was preparing to take her and their and four children out to eat and then planned to head to Connecticut with them when he was stabbed to death outside her sister’s home on Cumberland Street.
“He was so devoted to his family. He lived for us,” Padilla said, wiping away tears. “It is so lonely now.”
Beslanga died from a single stab wound to the chest at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday. He was the eighth person killed in the city this year, said Sgt. John M. Delaney, a spokesman for the Springfield Police Department.
Police said the stabbing stemmed from an altercation that erupted after Beslanga urinated in a residential alleyway between 62 and 66 Cumberland St. A male suspect took offense at that and argued with Beslanga and then stabbed him once in the chest with a knife, Delaney said.
The knife punctured Beslanga’s heart and a lung and he died before family could rush him to Baystate Medical Center, which is about 100 yards from the Cumberland Street address where he was stabbed, Delaney said.
Springfield Police Capt. Cheryl C. Clapprood said arrest warrants have been issued for Luis Cintron, 37, and Noemy Ramos, the 33-year-old woman who was with him at the time of Saturday’s killing. The two live at 66 Cumberland St.
Delaney said Cintron and Ramos, are facing murder charges and are considered armed and dangerous.
Padilla said she had been visiting her sister, who lives on the second floor apartment above Cintron and Ramos.
Their 7-year-old and 9-year-old saw the suspect pull out a chef’s knife and stab Beslanga.
“My son is so sad. I told him he is with God and he said, ‘He was the best dad ever,’¦” she said.
Padilla and Beslanga have been together for 13 years, and have four children aged 9, 7, 3 and 6 months. She has lived in Springfield all her life and Beslanga lived partly in Springfield and partly in Newington, Conn., where he works and where his parents live.
Beslanga, a computer technician, worked long hours with his father at his family’s business, Computer Technology in Newington, Padilla said.
He was a graduate of Middletown High School in Middletown, Conn., and learned about computers through his father, she said.
Padilla said the last thing he said to her was “lets get the kids in the car.” She regrets never getting a last hug from him.
“He was so smart. He gave me strength,” she said. “He was my best friend.”
She said she also knows Ramos, one of the suspects. The two grew up together and were best friends at one time. But she said she never liked Cintron.
As cousins, other family and friends gathered at her sister’s house Sunday to pay their respects, Padilla said she was a little frightened the couple would return to the Cumberland Street home. But she said she did not want to be alone either.
Authorities are asking anyone with information about Saturday’s slaying to call the Springfield Police Department Detective Bureau at (413) 787-6355. Text-message tips may be sent via Text-a-Tip, an anonymous crime-reporting system. Messages should be addressed to CRIMES (or 274637) and should begin with the word SOLVE
Staff writer Jeanette DeForge contributed to this story