Tenant accused of stabbing Chicago landlord to death; family can't understand why
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A landlord in the Back of the Yards neighborhood was attacked and killed recently, and police suspect his tenant in the deadly stabbing.
The landlord, Lorenzo Lavalle, is remembered as a pillar in the community – even helping newly-arriving migrants getting on their feet.
His wife, Katia Espinoza, said her husband treated his tenants in the six-unit wood-frame apartment building in the 1700 block of West 45th Street as more than just neighbors.
"In the building, my husband always tried like that people there be like a family," said Espinoza.
But it was one of those neighbors – Rolando Esbin Morales, 32 – who police said would end up taking Lavalle's life last Monday night. The altercation was captured on camera.
The surveillance video shows Lavalle backing out of one of the units in the building moments before he was stabbed in the chest - and then running down the hallway.
Espinoza was watching the surveillance cameras from their apartment as the violence unfolded. She was simultaneously on the phone with 911.
"I was screaming on the phone that: 'I need an ambulance! My husband is hurt!'" Espinoza said.
Espinoza said the attack came out of nowhere. Morales had asked her husband to fix a broken window, and then later, they had heard a woman screaming.
"We saw the woman on the street like running with a little boy, and he was, 'Someone is in my house!'" said Espinoza.
Espinoza said Morales had broken into the apartments of other neighbors – including Jefferson Martinez, who lives next door.
His wife answered the door, and he said when Morales barged in, his wife took off running.
Hearing the commotion, Lavalle tried calming Morales down.
"He took the knife from the woman's kitchen in the apartment - he took the knife and he started attacking my husband," said Espinoza.
Espinoza still does not know why the fight happened, nor why Lavalle was attacked.
Questions about what prompted it all have since haunted Espinoza and her family, especially because her husband had helped Morales to get back on his feet – and two had been friends for years.
"Esbin was like a son for my husband," Espinoza said.
Lavalle, 61, went out of his way to help others too – including Carlos Mayora, a newly-arrived migrant from Venezuela.
Mayora said Lavalle was like a father to him – helping him with housing and a job.
Lavalle - who also worked as a truck driver - left behind his wife, two kids, and three horses.
"Great father, great husband - and he was person with a really big heart," said Espinoza. "He was a great, great man."
Espinoza said her family was making plans to move to Mexico as soon as Lavalle retired. But now after this happened, she said they will stay in Chicago to see her husband's case through.