Suspect in custody in White Plains fatal stabbing

Fourth of July revelry in White Plains ended in bloodshed Thursday night when a Mount Vernon man stabbed an aquaintance to death on Ferris Avenue, police said.

Police were already in the area around 11:40 p.m. when multiple 911 calls were received about a stabbing outside 162 Ferris Ave. Officers found 40-year-old Bernard Potillo suffering from a stab wound to the chest and another man walking nearby with blood on his shirt and a bloody folding knife in his pocket, police Commissioner David Chong said.

Greenburgh paramedics took Potillo to Westchester Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later.

The 54-year-old suspect, Nathaniel Hill, was charged with first-degree manslaughter and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He is being held at the Westchester County jail and is due back in City Court on Tuesday.

Hill has a prior misdemeanor assault conviction from a 2015 incident in which a police officer was injured when Hill scuffled with them while at White Plains Hospital.

Chong said Hill and Potillo knew each other from Mount Vernon but what led to the confrontation was still under investigation.

Court records from a federal drug case a decade ago reveal a troubled upbringing for Potillo, who was raised by a crack-addicted mother, given limited access to a father who was a senior maintenance mechanic for the Westchester Department of Environmental Facilities and spent most of the last 20 years of his life in prison.

He pleaded guilty as a low-level drug dealer associated with the Elm Street Wolves gang in Yonkers who had acquired a gun to protect himself while he sold drugs. His lawyer emphasized that Potillo was never involved in the violent aspects of the Wolves' war with the rival Strip Boys.

"The way that Potillo has been waging his entire life is the war to keep himself drug free and away from the influence of the streets," the lawyer wrote to the judge.

In his own letter, Portillo asked for forgiveness from the Court and his family.

"I never at any point in my life wanted this life for myself nor do I glorify it," he wrote. "I never wanted anyone or any community to fear me in any way or feel they could not trust me. I am a better man than the charges I am here to answer."

Potillo served seven years in that case, and two additional stints after violating his supervised release. He was released from federal custody in January 2023.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Suspect in custody in White Plains fatal stabbing