The unhinged attacker suspected of fatally stabbing a beloved Brooklyn deli worker after a clash over a “loosie” cigarette has been identified as a repeat offender with two dozen arrests on his record, cops said.
The NYPD identified Oneil Millise, 42, as the person of interest in the Aug. 1 deadly knifing of Diego Sandoval Nava, 33, inside the Deli & Mini Market at Hegeman and Van Siclen avenues in East New York, authorities said.
Millise was wearing dark shades and a blue-and-white-striped long-sleeve button-down when he strolled into the East New York store and tossed a dollar on the counter, according to surveillance footage viewed by the owner of the deli and his brother.
“He came in, he asked for a cigarette,” the store owner’s brother, who did not want to be identified, previously told The Post.
“But the guy working the counter didn’t know him, so he didn’t want to sell him a cigarette. He wanted to be careful. He didn’t want to get a ticket, you know?”
Selling “loosies,” or individual cigarettes, is a violation in the Big Apple.
Witnesses said the man – furious that the clerk thought he could be an undercover cop – then hurled a credit card machine at him and threatened to kill him.
That’s when Nava, a dad of three, came out from behind the sandwich counter to calm the perp down, the footage shows.
The two then got into a scuffle and Nava was stabbed multiple times in the torso.
The suspect fled the scene.
Nava was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries.
His friends and co-workers said he had worked at the corner deli for at least six months, taking the bus to the store and making sandwiches.
“Diego was a great person who always helped out others, and sometimes, when kids didn’t have money to pay for the sandwiches, he paid for them because he trusted that people pay him back,” Nava’s friend, Nasser, 15, said at the deli. “He was always nice to everyone.”
Millise had not been caught by Wednesday, as the NYPD released a mugshot of the dreadlocked, bearded man wearing a black hoodie.
He has 24 prior arrests – including a January 2014 case in which he allegedly got into a fight with a fellow dollar van driver, 30, in Flatbush and allegedly knifed him in the face and torso, according to a criminal complaint and law enforcement sources.
Cops initially charged him with attempted murder – but the sources say he ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted assault 2 and was granted conditional discharge.
His rap sheet also includes arrests for driving without a license and criminal possession of a weapon, cops said.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, on X @NYPDTips.
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