9 YEAR OLD BOY WAS STABBED TO DEATH BY A 25 YEAR OLD MAN OVER VIDEO GAMES!

He was killed over a game.
A 9-year-old boy visiting his family in Harlem sat down Saturday to play a video game starring his skateboarding hero, Tony Hawk.

By 3:30 a.m., play time had turned to horror.

Police said Alejandro Morales, 25, plunged a knife in the boy's chest, sending him staggering to his uncle's bedroom door.

"Uncle, uncle, I've been stabbed!" Anthony Maldonado cried out, before collapsing on the floor, the uncle, Carlos Juela, 31, recalled.

Paramedics rushed Anthony from the La Salle St. apartment to St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, but the New Jersey boy died in less than an hour, police said.

"Anthony was playing ... on PlayStation when his friend came and stabbed him," said the boy's distraught grandfather, Antonio Juela, 59. "My grandson died over a video game."

Anthony's devastated mother, Dolores Juela, 35, raged against her son's suspected killer, unable to control her tears.

"Why would you kill my little boy?" she thundered in Spanish. "There is no reason."

Morales, wearing a white jacket and blue jeans, looked dazed, exhausted and unshaven last night as he was walked from the 26th Precinct stationhouse. He was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

Cops said Morales was the victim's cousin, while relatives said he was a family friend who lived at the uncle's apartment.

Anthony was a fourth-grader at Lindbergh Elementary in Palisades Park, N.J. He loved skateboarding, and was ecstatic about getting a PlayStation system for Christmas.

He spent the holidays at his grandfather's Harlem apartment while his mother remained at home. He was spending the night at his uncle's nearby apartment when he was killed.

Dolores Juela told the Daily News that her brother, Carlos Juela, rents an apartment in the Grant Houses along with a group of three brothers who are not related to the family.

At one point, Carlos Juela, 31, went to sleep and left Anthony in the care of the three brothers, she said.

Two of the brothers left the apartment to get food at about 3 a.m. Anthony and Morales remained behind because they were so engrossed in playing the video game, the distraught mother said.

Roughly 30 minutes later, Anthony was stabbed.

Dolores Juela arrived at the hospital four hours later for the grim task of identifying her son.

"He was so popular in school," she said. "He was such a good boy. He didn't deserve this. He was too young."

Police said Anthony was stabbed several times. A relative said his face had also been slashed and that he had bruises on his arms - perhaps indicating a struggle before the stabbing.

Cops investigating the murder shut down power to the building's elevator and searched the shaft for the murder weapon.

Dolores Juela said Morales' mother told her that her son was guilty of the shocking crime.

"She said he was sick," Dolores Juela recalled.

Anthony's uncle confirmed Morales lived in the apartment.

"He was a friend. I can't believe this happened," Carlos Juela said. "He doesn't act right on the street but he always minded his manners in the house."

Anthony's grandfather could not get over why an adult would stab his "lovely" little grandson.

"Anthony was a loving child who loved his PlayStation," Antonio Juela said. "He got the PlayStation for Christmas and was very happy. He was so happy."