A Bay Shore man is dead and a Babylon man is in police custody following a stabbing near the Locust Avenue baseball fields Saturday afternoon, police said.
According to police, during a fight in the street on Locust Avenue, Michael Grusel, 28, stabbed James Moran, 20, at 12:02 p.m.
Babylon Little League games were being played on nearby fields at the time, but police said the stabbing was "not related" to anything on the fields.
A witness broke up the fight and Moran told the witness he had been stabbed, police said.
Fred Bothe, an off-duty Suffolk County cop, was able to take Grusel into custody with the assistance of other civilians and hold him until First Precinct officers arrived on the scene, police said.
Moran was transported by the Babylon Fire Department to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Grusel is charged with first degree manslaughter and is scheduled to be arraigned in First District Court in Central Islip on Sunday.
A family friend of Grusel's defended the alleged attacker in an interview with Eyewitness News.
"He's 28 years old with the mental level of a 15-year-old," Anthony Herrera told the TV station. "They were chasing down this kid for the third time this week, and he got scared and had no choice but to protect himself."
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