Celebrity Workouts Made Easy!

One of the biggest reasons many people, especially beginners, give up on regular fitness training is the lack of motivation. One of the best to overcome this and keep your motivation up is to work out with a buddy. When you make plans to meet at the gym to train with your buddy, unless you're of a particular disposition which we do not advocate or an emergency occurs, you'll actually show up! It's one thing to cancel plans with yourself but it's another to cancel on your friend—someone who's counting on you. Instead of bailing and letting down your friend, you're much more likely to meet your friend for a planned workout session at, say 6 pm after work, compared to tentative plans you made with yourself. After three or four weeks, once you're in the habit, you won't even think about canceling on your friend.

And let's face it:working out isn't always the top of mind way to pass time, especially if you're just starting out on a fitness program. Moreover, most beginners to fitness tend to have little to no knowledge and still think the treadmills and the machines are the ‘time honored' traditional ways of training which aren't necessarily the most exciting ways to get fit. With a partner, you can get your heart racing in more interesting ways. You can take turns leading new movements that each of you has learned, or cheering your partner to do “just one more rep”. Whenever you're working out with someone else, the intensity is always going to be greater than when you're alone. You don't want to be the weak one who can't keep up, your best bud would never let you live it down! One key tip when picking your partner, though, is that your athletic abilities should ideally be about the same. A more seasoned gym rat won't get as much out of working out with a newbie. When you're both on the same level, you can push each other to go a little longer if your gym buddy is still at it.

So, now that you've persuaded your best mate to hit the gym with you, what can you guys do when you're there? How about these movements for a full body workout:

 Move 1: Body-Weight Squat

(A) Stand facing your partner at arm’s length with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart. Grasp your partner’s forearms.

(B) Maintaining a secure grip, lean back slightly as you both squat down until your thighs are about parallel to the floor. Pause for three seconds, then slowly return to the starting position. Repeat 12 times.

Move 2: Reach-and-Touch Plank

Lie on your stomach, facing your partner. Keep elbows under shoulders, palms flat on floor, and toes tucked under. Using your abdominals, elevate your torso and reach forward with your right hand to touch your partner’s right hand. Switch arms. Gently lower your body back to the ground. That’s one repetition; complete 12 total.

Move 3: Split Lunge

Stand facing your partner at arm’s length, grasping forearms. Stagger your feet, left foot behind the right. Slowly bend your knees into a lunge position, so your right thigh is parallel to the floor. Pause for three seconds, then slowly return to the starting position. Complete 12 reps, then switch legs and repeat.

Move 4: Triceps Extension

Face your partner, right foot in front of the left, holding one end of an exercise band in your right hand. (Your partner holds the other in her left.)

(A) Contract your abs and bend forward at your hips with your knees slightly bent.

(B) Slowly straighten your arm to pull back the band, then return to start. Complete 12 reps, then switch arms and repeat.

Move 5: Push-Up With Shoulder Tap

(A) Face your partner in a modified push-up position.

(B) Bend your arms to lower your body toward the ground.

(C) Push back up to the starting position, lift your right hand, and tap your partner on the left shoulder. (Your partner taps your left shoulder with her right hand.) Complete 12 reps, switching hands each time.

One of the things I have learned in my working out is what I give my body immediately after working out. I avoid all artificial/processed sugars. I love my home recipe from my mom with natural sugars from nothing but fruits. Here is one:

Coconut Papaya Smoothie

Keep working and stay Healthy. #MentorForHealth101 #FongangMbanwei

Celebrity 9 Key Workout Tips

With all the hard work that goes behind the scene in producing and maintaining good and better arts, most celebrities are always compelled to stay fit all the time. Here are some simple workout tips most celebrities are using to build and maintain their healthy lifestyle.

1. Pilates101

If your fitness goal is long, lean, sculpted muscles, Pilates is the perfect solution. While it focuses on core...

2. Stretches in 7 Minutes to Ease Lower Back Pain

We tend to think that only those who lead sedentary lives, like office workers who spend literally hours seated at their desks, experience lower back pains. However, even those who are incredibly active can be prone to such conditions. Stiffness, aches or spasms in the lower back are a common affliction and the following stretches will help keep your back fit and strong.

3. The hamstring floor stretch

Hold for 30 seconds twice for each leg.

4. Knee to chest stretch

This helps strengthen and relax your glutes. Hold for 20 seconds for each leg twice

5. Spinal stretch

This is particularly useful for those suffering from sciatica. Hold for 20 seconds and repeat on the other knee. Do this as many times as you like but don't over do it.

6. The piriformis stretch

Hold for 30 seconds and repeat with the other leg.

7. The hip flexors stretch

1. Hold for 30 seconds and then switch and repeat.
2. 
   
3. 8. The quadriceps lying down stretch

1. Hold for 30 seconds on each side. Do this one twice on each side.
2. 
   
3. 9. The total back stretch

Hold this for 30 seconds and then try this:

Hold for 10 seconds on both sides.

Let Hear How It Works for You In Your Comments Box Below. Feel Free To Share.#Legacybuilders2016 #LegacyBuilders

Why We Don't Hear From Giuliana Rancic Anymore

For well over a decade, Giuliana Rancic was everywhere to be seen on E!. From hosting red carpets to E! News, she was one of the network's top faces. Nowadays, though, you really don't see much of Rancic. What exactly happened? Here are a few clues.  

 

1. She Sparked A Scandal

Rancic found herself at the center of an intense media scandal after her appearance on Fashion Police's recap of the 2015 Academy Awards on February 23, 2015, during which she quipped that model-actress Zendaya must have smelled like "patchouli oil" or "weed" because she wore dreadlocks . Among her biggest critics was Zendaya herself, who released a blistering statement to her Instagram shortly after the episode aired. "To say that an 18-year-old young woman with locs must smell of patchouli oil or 'weed' is not only a large stereotype but outrageously offensive," Zendaya wrote, without mentioning Rancic by name. "I don't usually feel the need to respond to negative things but certain remarks cannot go unchecked."

As the scandal continued to balloon, Giuliana stepped in to formally apologize for making the joke—first on Twitter, then again during the February 24, 2015 episode of E! News. "I just want everyone to know that I didn't intend to hurt anybody, but I have learned it is not my intent that matters—it's the result," she said. "And the result is that people are offended, including Zendaya, and that is not OK. Therefore, I want to say to Zendaya and anyone else out that I have hurt that I am so, so sincerely sorry."

She continued: "This really has been a learning experience for me—I've learned a lot today—and this incident has taught me to be a lot more aware of cliches and stereotypes, how much damage they can do. And that I am responsible, as we all are, to not perpetuate them further." Zendaya accepted her apology shortly thereafter.

2. Which led to major behind-the-scenes drama

While this was all going down, the producers of Fashion Police found themselves dealing with another crisis when Rancic's co-host, Kelly Osbourne, threatened to quit the show over Rancic's comments about Zendaya. "I do not condone racism," Osbourne tweeted on February 24, 2015. "So as a [result] of this I'm [seriously questioning] staying on the show!" She followed those remarks with a separate tweet, adding, "I'm giving everyone involved 24 hours to make it right or the world will hear how I really feel. Contactually [sic] Im [sic] not allowed to speak!"

Osbourne's departure from the show was announced a few days later in a statement from E!, which said she was leaving to "pursue other opportunities." But even Osbourne's exit did little to quiet the scandal, as evident by an August 2015 interview she gave to The Wrap. "I will never admit to liking Giuliana because I don't," she said. "I don't think she's a good person and I think she's a liar." Yikes.

3. And then Kathy Griffin Quit

Rancic's terrible, no good, very bad year got even worse a few weeks after Osbourne's departure when Fashion Police host Kathy Griffin—who had stepped in to host following the death of Joan Rivers—openly criticized Rancic's joke about Zendya in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. "I wouldn't have said the joke in the first place," she said. "Some dude wrote it for her." Continuing to offer her perspective, she added, "Don't have anyone write you jokes or even suggest jokes for you on Fashion Police. You have enough great insider gossip from actually being on the red carpet. That's what fans want to hear the next day. Just talk and be yourself."

Only a few days later, Griffin confirmed on Twitter that she, too, was quitting Fashion Police after just seven episodes. "I discovered that my style [of comedy] does not fit with the creative direction of the show and now it's time to move on," she wrote. Her statement also appeared to indirectly address the drama from the Zendaya joke: "I do not want to use my comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance towards difference."

To make matters even worse for Rancic, E! subsequently announced that Fashion Police would be put on hold until a retooled version could be launched in September.

4. And then Rancic went on the defense

Weeks after Griffin's departure, Rancic appeared on the Today show to promote her new memoir, Going Off Script. But even then, she couldn't escape questions about the Zendaya controversy. This time around, Rancic appeared a bit more defensive about her involvement in the scandal, going so far as to allege that the joke had gotten taken out of context in the editing room. She also claimed that, of the 80 or so people at the taping that day, "not one" of them made any comment that suggested the joke might be offensive.

"I see why people took offense," Rancic said, adding she finds racism "reprehensible" and does not tolerate it "at all." "I thought that the joke was not edited in the proper way, and that's just something I have to live with. It's very important for me to just get out there and tell the real story, and I knew I would have my moment. But those darn headlines were so crazy for so long that I thought, 'Let everything calm down, and then I can come out and tell the real story.'" By then, though, the damage to Fashion Police had clearly been done.

5. She Left E! News

On July 9, 2015, Rancic announced she was leaving E! News as a day-to-day anchor but would continue to co-host E!'s red carpet coverage of awards season and, curiously enough, Fashion Police. Almost immediately after the news broke, a report from Page Six alleged that Rancic was leaving because E! had hired her "archrival" Maria Menounos and the network was pushing her out. "Giuliana knows it's a sinking ship and she's had an awful year," a source said. "It's half her decision to leave and half getting pushed out."

Rancic denied the claims, telling People it was "100 percent my decision to leave [E! News]." A few months later, Menounos also denied she was pushing Rancic out in an interview with Redbook magazine. "When I was being sought after by E!, I made it very clear to them that I didn't want to be coming over to take somebody's job," she said. "And I was assured that wasn't the case."

6. She Was Already Having A Rough Time

Even when you remove the Zendaya scandal, the past few years have been more than rough for Rancic. In 2011, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy shortly thereafter. Then, on New Year's Eve in 2014, Rancic—who welcomed son Duke in 2012 after years of infertility struggles—found out she had miscarried after becoming pregnant with her and husband Bill Rancic's third and final embryo. "It was painful," Rancic told People in April 2015. "We were so optimistic with this last embryo … It was a really hard time."

To make matters worse, many had become concerned about Rancic's weight in recent months and wondered whether the cancer had returned or she had an eating disorder. Amid the rumors, Rancic confirmed to People that her weight loss was the result of cancer-suppressing medication she had been taking for some time.

When you add everything together, it makes sense that Rancic would want to step away for a little while, especially on the heels of the Zendaya drama. Given all of her struggles, it was probably a good idea to step away and focus on priorities beyond headline-making news.

7. She's Doing Other Things

Although you may see less of her on E! these days, Rancic certainly hasn't slowed down in her professional life. In the last few years alone, she's launched a successful clothing line for HSN, a brand of wine, and an initiative aimed to help women battling breast cancer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, her business and charitable ventures appear to have helped ease the headaches caused by the Zendaya debacle. When asked whether her uptick in appearances on HSN were a "breath of fresh air" after hosting E! News for over a decade, Rancic's husband Bill bluntly told The New York Daily News: "From your mouth to God's ears!"

"It's just really nice to be doing what I'm very passionate about," Rancic said more diplomatically.

10 Celebrities Who Are Nothing Like They Seem

1. Jimmy Fallon

When NBC dumped Conan O'Brien as the host of The Tonight Show in favor of bringing back Jay Leno, it seemed the network was trying to play it safe and appeal to the biggest crowd. Leno's second successor, Jimmy Fallon, seems to have been the right move in keeping The Tonight Show as safe as possible. But when he's not hosting the late-night TV dynasty, Fallon seems to be not-so-safe after all. In autumn 2015, The New York Post revealed that Fallon is a pretty heavy drinker, and that fact is starting to become an open secret among those who know and work with him. He suffered alcohol-induced injuries three times in a four-month span—injuries that included needing to get his hand stitched up after falling on a broken bottle of Jägermeister. On the subject of his reputation for heavy drinking, an inside source was quoted as saying, "It's gone from being a whisper to a chatter."

2. Lena Headey

On the Emmy-winning Game of Thrones, Headey plays the ruthless, conniving, incestuous Cersei Lannister, Queen Regent of the Seven Kingdoms. Her character is so convincing, Thrones' fans recoil from her autograph at cast events. When Headey is out and about living her real life, strangers who are also out and about living their real lives (in fantasy land) will routinely cuss her out. Headey is truly a delightful lady. She's hilarious and humble. Her kids seem lovely too (and were not actually fathered by her brother.) If you need a reason to hate the real Headey, here's one: she told Conan O'Brien she has not read George R. R. Martin's books, on which the show is based.

3. Nolan Gould


His character on Modern Family is a few fries short of a Happy Meal, but in real life, Gould is a genius, literally. He's a member of Mensa, a society for people with high IQs. Gould is a kid that can talk nuclear fusion and string theory, but can also play the lovable, gullible Luke Dunphy on TV. He told Ellen DeGeneres the personality juxtaposition makes for awkward introductions. Strangers "always expect me to not be very smart. They talk slow." Gould finished high school at age 13 and his breezing his way through college and, oh yeah, still acting on that award-winning show. What are you doing with your life?

4. Carroll O'Connor

Television's most famous bigot has got to be Archie Bunker of All in the Family. Perhaps no single character has more convincingly sold the role of ignorant old windbag better than Carroll O'Connor, which never ceased to amaze those who knew him because the actor was considered a very kind and intelligent man.

In his memoir (via The Hollywood Reporter), showrunner Norman Lear writes about O'Connor's eternal struggle to play the abrasive role of Bunker. Lear recalls every script as a battle, with O'Connor threatening to quit repeatedly because he was so repulsed. "It was understandable to a degree," Lear writes. "He was, after all, at the beginning of a process where he was to shed the gentle Irish intellectual Carroll O'Connor to become the poorly educated, full-of-himself blowhard Archie Bunker, spewing a kind of rancid, lights-out conservatism for a television audience that grew quickly to more than 50 million people."

5. Steve Buscemi

As an actor, Buscemi's curriculum vitae includes murderer, gangster, addict, and bum, but off-screen, he's a stand-up, blue collar guy from Brooklyn. Before his acting career heated up, a young Buscemi worked as a firefighter for Little Italy's Engine 55. The day after the September 11 terror attacks, he went to Ground Zero in his old gear to join his former team. He worked long shifts with them for nearly a week, clearing rubble and searching for survivors. Buscemi never boasted about his volunteerism. It was fellow firefighters that revealed what he'd done. In 2014, he collaborated on an HBO documentary called A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY.

6. Andrew Lincoln

We've watched for years as sheriff deputy Rick Grimes battles zombies on The Walking Dead. Lincoln's character is tough, tormented, and decidedly Southern. So Southern that his pronunciation of "Carl," the name of his on-screen son, fueled a slew of memes. Perhaps that's why it still shocks us when we hear Lincoln's authentic British accent in interviews. Do you know the guy's last name isn't even Lincoln? It's Clutterbuck. Clutterbuck! That surname belongs at Hogwarts, not in a post-apocalyptic U. S. of A.

7. John Lennon


The Beatle who penned "All You Need is Love" and "Give Peace a Chance" didn't always practice what he preached. Behind the scenes, Lennon was abusive toward women, unfaithful to his first wife, and an absentee father to his first born. Later in life, after spending several years as a self-proclaimed "househusband" with second wife, Yoko Ono, Lennon addressed his ugly ways and talked about personal growth. "It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything's the opposite," he told Playboy in September 1980. "But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence." Three months later on Dec. 8, 1980, Lennon was tragically murdered outside his New York City apartment.

8. Tim Allen

The star of sitcom Home Improvement and Disney's The Santa Clause film series seems like a good-natured, sometimes dopey man-child. Allen, who rose to fame as a stand-up comic, became a household name playing Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor on prime time, then went on to save Christmas a time or two. It's hard to fathom that back in 1978, Allen was arrested on drug trafficking charges—nabbed with more than 650 grams of cocaine—and served two years behind bars. He was arrested again in 1997 on a DUI charge. While he's kept himself away from legal trouble of late, he did make waves for defending celebrity chef Paula Deen's use of the "N-word" in casual conversation. Talk about "tool time."

9. Taylor Swift

She's written a song called "Innocent," but Taylor Swift may not be as sweet as she so often appears—at least according to Kim Kardashian, anyway. Throughout the summer of 2016, the reality TV star repeatedly alleged that Swift knew Kardashian's husband, Kanye West, would rap about her in his now-controversial song, "Famous," even though Swift publicly denounced the song multiple times after its release.

After accusing Swift of lying in a profile for GQ magazine and on a subsequent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kardashian released a series of videos to her Snapchat account that allegedly showed Swift happily giving West her approval of the song, just as West had claimed on Twitter many months before. Swift, however, stuck by her claim that West never actually told her about the lyric in which he referred to her as "that b****," which she claimed is something she'd never approve due to its misogynistic message. By then, though, the damage had already been done.

10. Ben Affleck

He's one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors and directors, but behind the scenes, Ben Affleck has battled substance abuse and gambling issues for well over a decade. He entered rehab in 2001, at the peak of his young fame, reportedly to deal with ongoing alcohol abuse. Alcohol and gambling were also said to be key factors in the downfall of his marriage to Jennifer Garner, according to TMZ; lest we forget the time he was allegedly removed from a casino for counting cards. Still, the most damning case against Affleck came in Garner's first post-divorce interview with Vanity Fair, during which she alluded to multiple issues throughout their marriage, including infidelity. "No one needs to hate him for me…Don't worry—my eyes were wide open during the marriage. I'm taking good care of myself." Yikes.

Rio Brazil Olympics Updates Critical Moments

Elaine Thompson Doubles Up With 200 Gold

Photo

Elaine Thompson of Jamaica beat Dafne Schippers, who fell crossing the finish line, in the 200 meters.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

Elaine Thompson of Jamaica won the 200 meters wire-to-wire to complete a sprint double at the games. Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands won the silver medal, and Tori Bowie of the United States won the bronze. Her winning time was 21.78. In the 100 meters, Thompson had dethroned her countrywoman, the two-time winner Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. Bowie was the silver medalist in that race.

Gatlin fails to qualify in 200: The American sprinter Justin Gatlin surprisingly failed to qualify for the final of the 200 meters.

Gatlin, who won the silver medal in the 100, seemed to ease up in the last strides only to slip to third place. Only the top two finishers in each semifinal automatically qualified for the final. Usain Bolt qualified by winning another semifinal, as did the American Lashawn Merritt.

U.S. Sweeps 100 Hurdles: The United States completed a rare 1-2-3 sweep in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Brianna Rollins won the gold medal, Nia Ali the silver and Kristi Castlin the bronze.

Boxing Referees and Judges Removed

Several referees and judges have been removed from the Olympic boxing competition after officials reviewed their decisions, fueling suspicion of dubious results in some matches at the Rio Games.

The federation, known as AIBA, said in a statement that the committee that reviews officiating had assessed all 239 bouts at the Rio Games through Tuesday and had “determined that less than a handful of the decisions were not at the level expected.”

The federation also said in the statement that “the concerned referees and judges will no longer officiate at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.”

Ryan Lochte will be summoned back to Brazil to give testimony in front of the country's Justice Department in Rio over his fabricated robbery story, police officials confirmed to the Associated Press on Thursday. 

Lochte will be informed in the United States so he could decide whether to introduce a defense in Brazil, and the indictment will also be sent to the International Olympic Committee's ethics commission, authorities said in a statement. 

Lochte's spokesperson, Melissa Nathan, said the swimmer had no comment. 

The summons is expected soon, as civil police in Brazil said they will complete their investigation into Lochte's initial claims this week. The findings will then be sent to state prosecutors, who will, in turn, pass them on to a federal U.S. law enforcement agency, which will notify Lochte, according to Fox.

Lochte, 32, told PEOPLE he was sorry for falsely claiming that he and three other swimmers were robbed at a Rio gas station during the Olympics. 

Ryan Lochte

MATT HAZLETT / GETTY

Subsequently, a Brazilian judge demanded Lochte and Feigen's passports – but Lochte had already left the country. 

Feigen paid a nearly $11,000 "donation" to have his passport returned and charges dropped. Bentz and Conger were pulled off a plane headed back to the U.S. for questioning, but were ultimately not charged in the incident. 

David Kubiliun of Greenspoon Marder's criminal law practice group in Florida tells PEOPLE that if Lochte were his client, he wouldn't advise the swimmer to return to Brazil. 
"If he were my client, I would not advise Lochte to return," says Kubiliun, who is not involved in the case. "At this point, Lochte has nothing to gain and all to lose, particularly since: There may be no real legal consequence or penalty if he fails to appear; making a false police report, the offense for which he seems to face the most criminal exposure, is not an extraditable offense per the extradition agreement between Brazil and the U.S.; and any statements or testimony Lochte may provide will likely be used to further incriminate and embarrass him." 

Further, Kubiliun says that it's "questionable whether Brazil would be pursuing this case so doggedly had this involved a non-celebrity." 

"Either way, Lochte will not be extraditable unless he were to be charged in Brazil with an offense that is listed in the extradition treaty between the US and Brazil," Kubiliun tells PEOPLE. 

Lochte has subsequently faced backlash for making the false claims, and was dropped by several sponsors, including Speedo and Ralph Lauren. He is facing further punishment from the U.S. Olympic Committee. 

Julian Washington In A Bronx Precinct Dead; What Happened 

This Is A Social A True Social Circles Collide On A Dance Floor Resulting In A Brawl That Ends In Death.

Someone cut the music, and then from the kitchen came the crash of a utensil drawer being yanked out of a wooden cabinet. Vernon Hubbard stepped over tiles strewed with spatulas, spoons, purple plates and an unopened liter of soda. His eyelids were droopy, witnesses said, and in each hand he carried a steak knife.

“Nobody’s getting out of here alive,” he said from the apartment doorway, according to a witness. Others remembered a more lurid phrase: People, he warned, would be “leaving out in body bags.”

Some partygoers sat stone-still, wedged together on a few living room couches. Others untangled themselves from a brawl that had grown out of a dance in the middle of the room. A woman shouted, “All I want to do is go home.”

In a purple-and-white-striped polyester shirt and Nikes, with brandy and beer blurring his thinking, Mr. Hubbard seemed barely able to stand, let alone hold anyone hostage

“I was trying to plug and patch and scream for help,” she said. “Everybody else that was at that party decided to flee the scene.” That image of a stampede of partygoers racing past Mr. Washington’s slumped-over body haunts his brother, Guy Miller. “For everybody just to walk over him, to leave him in the hallway by himself, that’s the crushing part,” Mr. Miller said. “It seemed like he just died by himself, suffering, with nobody there.”Mr. Washington was pronounced dead at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center almost an hour later, at 12:53 a.m. on April 10. He became the sixth of 10 homicides logged this year in the 40th Precinct in the South Bronx, making it the second deadliest in New York City, behind the 75th Precinct in East New York, Brooklyn. 

A photo of Mr. Washington as a boy with his grandmother. She raised him after he was separated from his siblings when he was 5 years old.

SHE raised him, but the hillside towers of the St. Mary’s Park Houses were his second home. It was there, in Ms. Vargas’s apartment on the ninth floor, that he would play Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, smoke cigarettes and debate voting for Bernie Sanders.

He and Ms. Vargas had met in high school and dated before she came out as gay and he as bisexual. He was witty and self-deprecating, with a natural talent for dance, and he made fast friends around the housing project, where people called him Peaches.

Around 30 people were marooned inside Apartment 15E at 645 Westchester Avenue, a public housing high-rise around East 152nd Street in the South Bronx. Only one elevator was working. Some neighbors, to blunt the weekend noise, had taken sleeping pills and wedged mats in their entryways.

A few people grabbed at Mr. Hubbard’s arms, trying to get him to drop the knives. Others hid in a back bedroom. One woman called the police. Everybody screamed.

Mr. Hubbard started swinging, witnesses and the police said — flailing, really. His arms were locked at the elbow, and his body tipped as he sliced the air.

People saw knives flash inside a knot of bodies.

Moments later, Julian Washington, a 30-year-old man in a fitted Yankees hat, staggered into the building’s hallway, bleeding. He had pushed his best friend, Tawana Vargas, out the door as the fight heated up, and she had been pacing the hallway waiting for him. Now, she pulled his left hand away from his head, figuring — hoping — that he had been smashed with a beer bottle, nothing worse.

Blood spurted out of his neck, a few inches below his left ear, and it ran in rivulets down the beige bricks of the hallway wall.

Mr. Washington choked on a few words, and then collapsed.

Partygoers rushed out behind him, leaving bloody footprints on the floor. Ms. Vargas ran downstairs to look for a police officer.

Balloons in purple, gold and black lost their helium and floated to the apartment’s linoleum tile floor. Napkins, ribbons and plastic cups were cracked and torn. They were all in purple, to celebrate the first year the party’s host, Darshonna Willoughby, who is Mr. Hubbard’s cousin, had survived with lupus.

Mr. Hubbard waited at the elevator bank. His leather jacket, investigators said, was covered in blood, on its collar and elbows and pockets. The one working elevator arrived. He showed little of the panic of someone who had just stabbed a man, the police said.

At the foot of the high-rise, part of the St. Mary’s Park Houses, he tossed a knife into the parking lot, witnesses said, waved his arm in vain for a cab and then lumbered toward the subway. Witnesses said the crime was so senseless and the getaway so inept that they had been moved, against their instincts, to point him out to police officers, who stopped him near the subway.

On the 15th floor, one person crouched by Mr. Washington’s side: Mr. Hubbard’s sister, Cassandra Newbold, who had been fighting with Mr. Washington, too. She used his clothes to try to stop the bleeding.

Police officers investigating Mr. Washington’s killing on April 10 at the St. Mary’s Park Houses.CreditEdwin J. Torres for The New York Times

On April 9, a Saturday, he walked there over the Harlem River, his long legs carrying him almost as quickly as the subway could. On the stove in his apartment, Mr. Washington had left half a pot of seafood gumbo, a favorite dish among his friends that he hoped to perfect in culinary school someday soon.

He met Ms. Vargas in her sister’s apartment in the same complex, where Mr. Washington sometimes stayed the night on a tattered couch beneath the windows.

Mr. Washington was unemployed, but his friends were unwinding from long weeks at work. They passed around big bottles of Corona, the communion cup of their gatherings.

From there, they bounced around an archipelago of public housing apartments, corner spots and hallways where they could hang out free of charge and unbothered, for the most part, by the police. Mr. Washington drank beer, got some food and talked up a recent WWE wrestling event with a younger friend. At each spot, they picked up a few more people.

Ms. Vargas said she recently warned Mr. Washington about the danger lurking in her corner of the vast public housing landscape in the South Bronx. “Don’t hang out in this building,” she said she told him. “This area is just bad, period. Just stay in Harlem where you live.” But, she added, “Julian was just that type of person always looking for something.”

Mr. Washington used to party in the West Village and at the nearby piers with a ragtag group of gay people, many of them black and Hispanic. But as gentrification marched toward the water, his circle lost that spot on the margins of the city, where they could let loose among strangers they trusted. Mr. Washington started spending more time in Bronx parks and housing projects.

Shortly after 11 p.m., Mr. Washington got curious about the party for Ms. Willoughby on the 15th floor. They had not been invited, and none of them were dressed in purple, the color of lupus awareness, as an invitation had asked, so Mr. Washington walked down a flight of stairs to ask if they could join.

Photo

Vernon Hubbard was arraigned in Criminal Court on May 10. He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges.CreditEdwin J. Torres for The New York Times

“So then he came back, he was like, ‘Yes, it’s lit, she said we can come down,’” Ms. Vargas said.

Tension Builds and Bursts

For much of the night, the party had been relaxed. Mr. Hubbard had arrived around 6 p.m. People were sitting and talking on couches around the living room. Reggae and hip-hop hits were playing over the speakers, among them Rihanna’s single “Work,” Mr. Washington’s favorite song of the moment.

It had something of the feeling of a family reunion. Ms. Willoughby had invited a number of her cousins, among them Mr. Hubbard, with whom she had reconnected only a few months earlier through her grandfather.

He had come halfheartedly, his mother said in an interview. His sister, Ms. Newbold, asked him to bring food she had cooked: pans of pork shoulder, fried chicken, collard greens, crab salad and macaroni and cheese.

Ms. Willoughby, wearing all black, cut the cake, which had two photos: one when she was in the hospital being treated for lupus, and another from when she had started feeling better.

Mr. Hubbard, 35, looked out of place. A fast-food chef who had entered foster care when he was 12, he had been spending much of his time at home since being stabbed in the spine with an ice pick last summer during a robbery or possible gang assault, his mother, Venice Quinones, said. He was overheard complaining to his sister about wanting to go home until she persuaded him to stay. And he was getting drunk. He said in a jailhouse interview that he was downing E&J brandy and Miller beer.

“He just looked crazy in his eyes — he looked crazy to me,” said Natasha Hill, a partygoer. “They were red, and he looked like he had evil in his eyes.”