NEW YORK (AP) – An argument that started over cutting in line at a popular Middle Eastern food vending street cart turned deadly when one man stabbed the other to death, police said.

Tyrone Gibbons, 19, of Short Hills, N.J., was standing in line at a falafel cart in midtown Manhattan at about 4 a.m. Saturday when he and his friends got into an argument with Ziad Tayeh, 23, about cutting in line, police spokeswoman Detective Theresa Farello said.

After a heated exchange, Gibbons and his friends got in their car, and Tayeh got in his, police said. The fight erupted again a couple of blocks away, where the vehicles caught up with each other, and the victim was stabbed in the chest, police said.

Gibbons was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Tayeh, of Brooklyn, was picked up by police several blocks away and was being charged with second-degree murder, Farello said.

A woman who answered the telephone at Tayeh’s Park Slope home on Sunday said she could not comment on the stabbing.

The food cart where the dispute started is known for its tasty Pakistani and Middle Eastern dishes, including its falafel, fried balls or patties of ground chickpeas usually stuffed into pita bread.


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