In the final, horrifying moments of his life, a popular soccer coach from England desperately fought his killer on a Manhattan sidewalk, slamming the knife-wielding attacker into a wall while being stabbed repeatedly.
Surveillance cameras captured Michael Jones’ battle to the death, then filmed his cold-blooded attacker casually slinking off into the darkness, leaving the 25-year-old victim to die in a pool of blood on W. 14th St.
“We are just stuck in shock, really, that this is real, this is happening to us. You think you’ll wake up and it’ll be a dream,” Jones’ heartbroken father, Perry Jones, 50, said Monday at his home outside Liverpool, England.
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A manhunt continued Monday for the ponytailed killer, who butchered the New York Red Bulls’ youth soccer coach early Sunday morning — slashing his throat and severing his ear.
The city medical examiner revealed Monday that Jones was done in by repeated stab wounds to the torso, including one that pierced his heart.
Detectives are still trying to piece together what prompted the 4:30 a.m. bloodbath in one of the city’s lowest crime areas.
Cops were analyzing, frame by frame, the chilling surveillance tape that recorded the slaying. But a law enforcement source denied a report police were questioning a “person of interest” at the 13th Precinct stationhouse.
“There are no suspects, no person of interest,” the source said Monday evening.
The frenzied encounter erupted without warning as Jones and the killer walked on W. 14th St. near Fifth Ave., apparently talking. Suddenly, the suspect whipped out a knife and cut Jones.
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Allison Joyce/for New York Daily News
Michael Jones, 25, was found stabbed to death around 4:30 a.m. on W. 14th Street near Union Square on October 7, 2012.
The stunned victim, bleeding from the wound, whirled around and charged the assailant, lowering his shoulder like a linebacker and slamming him into a building.
But in a span of no more than four seconds, the killer gained the upper hand, spinning Jones around and stabbing him three times in the torso.
Jones collapsed to his knees. He briefly got to his feet, then crumpled to the sidewalk. His killer — described as Hispanic and 25 to 30 years old — calmly walked away, looking over his right shoulder at Jones and slipping the bloody knife back into his pocket.
In the immediate aftermath of the crime, a woman passed Jones and kept walking. A few second later, a group stumbled upon the body and one member of the group called 911 while others took cell-phone photos of Jones on the ground.
Perry Jones said news of the tragedy reached him and his wife, Carole, 53, as they were watching Liverpool, their son’s beloved team, play rival Stoke City to a 0-0 draw on television.
“Michael’s brother (Philip) got a Facebook message saying there had been an accident and that we needed to ring the police department in New York,” Perry Jones said.
“We got through to the officer who was dealing with the case and, once he confirmed who I was, he just told me that Michael had been murdered,” he said. “I guessed it was something serious, but I didn’t think it would be murder.”
Detectives were busy piecing together Michael Jones’ steps in the final hours of life, hoping to find a clue that would lead them to the killer.
He had spent much of Saturday night with a gal pal, Brianna Murphy, at their friend Mary Johnston’s W. 14th St. apartment, a source said. About midnight, Jones left Murphy and Johnston to meet up with a friend at the The Standard nightclub in the Meatpacking District.
But on his way to the club, he received a text message from his friend telling him to meet instead at The Park restaurant and bar on 10th Ave. near 17th St. in Chelsea.
At about 3 a.m., Jones texted Murphy from inside The Park. About 45 minutes later, he called Johnston from outside the bar, saying he had left his keys at her apartment. He didn’t seem to be in any sort of peril, the source said.
Just moments before he was killed, he sent another friend an innocuous Facebook message from W. 14th St., between Fifth and Sixth Aves., near the spot where he was killed, the source said.
“It’s difficult to believe what’s happened,” said Jones’ father, his eyes red-rimmed, his voice cracking with emotion.
Police revealed Monday that there had been an unrelated non-fatal stabbing of a 28-year-old man Saturday at 6:20 p.m., at the subway station on W. 14th and Seventh Ave., just two blocks from where Jones was killed (See video here).
Michael Jones arrived in New York in 2008 after landing his dream job with the Red Bulls organization as a coach in the youth training program. In a statement Sunday, the Red Bulls called Jones a “tremendous individual and a fantastic coach” and lamented his loss, saying, “This is truly a sad day for our soccer community.”
Jones’ myriad friends shared the the loss.
“I’m just trying to get my head around the whole incident,” said Karl Hogan, 32, a native of County Clare, Ireland, who shared an apartment with Jones in West Harrison in Westchester County.
“I coach with him. We run programs together,” Hogan added. “He’s a great guy. An honest guy, very passionate about his job. He always thought about the kids (and) never’d get into any trouble. “He liked American culture, American sports,” Hogan added. “He was a Patriots fan.”
Jones graduated in 2008 from Edge Hill University in northwest England, where he was known as a hardworking student and an outstanding athlete.
“He had a bright future ahead of him, having forged a successful coaching career in the U.S.A. following his graduation,” said an Edge Hill spokesman.
Jones’ old high school teacher Simon Bland added, “He was your dream student to have.”
