Groom-to-Be Stabbed to Death After Engagement Party

No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.

A 27-year-old Staten Island man was stabbed to death outside a restaurant shortly after celebrating his engagement with his fiancee, family and friends, according to police and multiple reports. 

Police responding to a 911 call at Espana Restaurant and Lounge in Annandale early Saturday found Antonio Lacertosa bleeding from a stab wound to the torso, authorities say.

Lacertosa and his friends went to the restaurant to continue their celebration after an earlier party at a catering hall, and ended up getting into an argument with bar management -- allegedly over unruly boisterous behavior -- at about 2 a.m., according to SILive.com.

The verbal argument escalated outside the restaurant and a man believed to be an employee of the restaurant allegedly stabbed Lacertosa with a kitchen knife in an alley.

He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

"It's completely shocking," said childhood friend Tom Hare in Annadale, Staten Island. "There's always been kids that hung out here. Anthony was one of them. When I was younger, we used to all hang out in the park together.

Vito Teutonico, another friend, said of Lacertosa, "I know him from the neighborhood. He was a really good guy. He was a stand-up kid, for his age. He was clean-cut, he was a hard worker."

No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.

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