“He just came to get his money”: Landlord murdered mid-eviction

Alvin Matsumoto was allegedly attacked by tenant’s boyfriend

(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)
(Photo Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)

Alvin Matsumoto probably did not want to die for his condo.

Unfortunately, the 64-year-old landlord was killed while trying to evict a tenant from his Honolulu property, Hawaii News Now reported. 

Matsumoto owned a second floor unit in the condominium at 620 Sheridan Street and arrived there on March 19 to remove the tenant, the outlet reported. During the eviction, the tenant’s boyfriend, who police identified as 23-year-old Kendall Gray, allegedly assaulted Matsumoto on the sidewalk outside the building. 

Shawn Giles, another condo owner, was in his unit that afternoon when he heard loud noises and shouting. He walked outside to check on the situation, and saw the suspect dragging a bloodied Matsumoto down the stairs, he told the outlet.

“He’s dragging him like a caveman. Just dragging the body,” Giles told the publication. After that, Gray told Giles that Matsumoto needed help, and to call 911.

Then, police say, he fled. 

Matsumoto was bleeding profusely from his head and taken to Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, where he died from his wounds, the outlet reported. 

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“He just came to get his money,” Giles said to the outlet.

Real estate investing and property management isn’t necessarily regarded as a dangerous line of work, but Matsumoto isn’t the first landlord to be killed on the job.

Brooklyn landlord Menachem Stark was murdered by a construction worker and two accomplices in 2014.

Edgar Moncayo, a landlord in Queens, died after a tenant pushed him down the stairs in 2020. 

Sometimes it’s not the tenant who becomes violent during an eviction. Last November, a Cincinnati landlord was arrested following an eviction that escalated to the point where she allegedly pulled a butcher’s knife after police responded to her call for help. 

That same month in New Orleans, a property manager was arrested for his alleged role in an October eviction that resulted in the shooting of both him and a deputy constable.

— Kate Hinsche