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Police Investigate Fatal Stabbing Of Groom On Staten Island

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A young groom was stabbed to death Saturday while out celebrating the engagement.

Witnesses say they overheard 27-year-old Anthony Lacertosa or someone from his party complaining to a manager at the Espana restaurant in Annadale moments before a fight.

"The girls were outside screaming 'Somebody got stabbed.' So I went outside. The kid was outside bleeding ferociously on the floor, laid out, not breathing. Then in the next five minutes he wasn't breathing or nothing," witness John Perrotta told CBS 2's Dave Carlin.

Lacertosa was pronounced dead at the hospital as police ramped up a search for his killer.

Friends and relatives gathered outside Lacertosa's home in Prince's Bay where he was raised with his seven siblings.

Long time neighbor Nasser Selami said Lacertosa and his father were both in the construction industry and that he never knew Anthony to get in to arguments.

"He was a good kid. Never caused any trouble. Always kept to himself, never into any trouble in the neighborhood," he said.

Police interviewed several restaurant workers and took footage from a security camera installed on the pharmacy next door.

They would not comment on witness accounts the killer may be a restaurant employee who grabbed a knife from the kitchen.

The internet web page for Lacertosa and fiancee Bridgette Schneider was unchanged Saturday, announcing a November 30 date date for a ceremony that will never happen.

"My heart goes out to that kid's family. It's a horrible thing that happened," said Perrotta.

Grieving family members who had been planning for a wedding now have to arrange a funeral.

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