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An autopsy revealed that a 6-inch stab wound pierced the heart of Rocco Rodden in front of an ax-throwing bar on Lafayette Street around 1:50 a.m., Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eun Bi Kim said on Saturday, Nov. 25.
The accused killer, Gianluca Bordone, 19, of Oyster Bay, was wearing a black sweatshirt with the word "courage" on the back when he was brought in for an arraignment early Saturday in Manhattan Criminal Court, less than a 5-minute walk from where Rodden was killed.
The judge ordered him held on $4 million bail.
Bordone is charged with manslaughter and assault following the incident at the corner of Layfayette and White streets outside Live Axe.
A private event had just ended when the Rodden brothers and others continued partying outside, Kim said during Saturday's arraignment.
A fight broke out and Bordone "stabbed the 17-year-old in the chest," she told the judge. "He then slashed the 19-year-old brother across the torso, causing a deep laceration."
The brothers were rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where Rocco -- a junior at St. Joseph's Regional High School in the Bergen County town of Montvale -- was pronounced dead at 8:45 a.m., authorities said.
Bordone fled, first approaching a private vehicle and then a party bus "attempting to talk his way inside,” the assistant DA said.
He ended up hopping a cab less than a mile to the Bowery, where he joined four friends who'd been in the fight, Kim said.
Bordone was still wearing a vest soaked in blood when police captured him, authorities said.
To this point no one has said what the fight was about. Nor have they said what kind of weapon was used.
Bordone's attorney didn't deny the stabbings.
Rather, he told the judge, his client was "pummeled repeatedly" during a "chaotic scene," suggesting he acted in self-defense.
The attorney asked the judge to release Bordone, who lives with his father, operates a party planning business and had no criminal record.
The judge refused, then set bail.
Rodden’s father said in an Instagram post that he was left “broken inside” by the death of his son.
St. Joe's, meanwhile, offered grief counseling and support services to students and staff.
Rocco (Class of 2025) -- who lived in the Somerset County town of Warren -- was an offensive lineman for the Green Knights.
Plans are to begin the school day Monday with an assembly and prayer service, a letter from St. Joe's says.
"We hope that this gathering will provide an opportunity for our community to come together, lean on one another, and find comfort in shared memories of Rocco," it says.
ALSO SEE: Bergen County High School Footballer Stabbed Dead, Brother Wounded In NYC
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