Two young men have been arrested and charged with stabbing a man to death on the Jersey Shore, authorities announced Tuesday.
Nija Faust, 21, and Santana Rivera-Cosme, 20, are accused of fatally stabbing 35-year-old Eren Kurkcu on Friday in Long Branch, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. They were each charged with first-degree murder and two weapons offenses.
Cops in Long Branch, about 30 miles south of Central Park, responded around 11:30 p.m. Friday to reports of a stabbing, according to the prosecutor’s office. First responders rushed Kurkcu to a local hospital, but he was pronounced dead early Saturday morning.
Investigators with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and Long Branch Police “determined Faust and Rivera-Cosme were responsible for the stabbing,” according to the statement. Further details of the investigation were not released, and authorities did not publicly speculate on a motive for the attack.
The killing of Kurkcu was the second fatal stabbing in three days in Monmouth County. Kaylib Paul, 24, was stabbed to death in Neptune Township on March 4, and Zhahiem Spann, 28, was charged with killing him.