STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- Within the past year, Filroy Warner, 42, started a new job that he loved, moved to Staten Island and reconnected with his daughter.

But his new life tragically ended when he was fatally stabbed at the Urby apartment complex in Stapleton Wednesday night.

"He was a good man," said Warner's girlfriend, Maritza Francis, 47. "He was very giving, friendly and respectful.

"He was a great person."

Sources said Warner was stabbed nine times in an apartment on the the third floor of the Urby complex.

Both the victim and the perpetrator were at a gathering at the 8 Navy Pier Court building when the fatal encounter occurred, sources said. Neither man lived at Urby.

Police responded to the incident at around 11:42 p.m., and found Warner with multiple stab wounds to his torso inside the apartment. He was transported to Richmond University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Cops showed up at Francis' Staten Island home at around 3 a.m. to break the news. The grieving woman said she had been dating Warner for four years, and he had been living with her the past year.

He was at the house all week, except the day of the fatal encounter, she said. Francis said she spoke to Warner early Wednesday evening, and he told her that he had left Staten Island.

"I'm just shocked by all this," Francis said. "I don't really know what happened."

"I just miss him," she added.

Warner was an avid sports fan, especially basketball and baseball, and rooted for the Mets, even though he was from the Bronx.

He loved his job at the Parks Department, where he cut grass, trimmed trees and cleared snow, his girlfriend said.

"He was going on the right path," said his daughter, Shala Anais Warner, 19. "He made a whole new life on Staten Island."

Shala said Warner, a father of two, wasn't in her life much growing up. They reconnected about two years ago, and were working on a new relationship.

She last spoke to him on Tuesday, when they talked about her dad paying for her dental expenses.

"He was trying," said the daughter. "My mom says he was always charismatic. He was a good person."

"I couldn't imagine who would do this," she added. "He wasn't a gang-banger or anything like that. He was a softy."

Police described the suspect only as an unknown black man.

There have been no arrests at this time.

Francis, whose husband, Tracy Francis, was also killed on Staten Island in 2011, said Warner's slaying has reopened old wounds.

"It's like living in the past again," she said. "I'm really hurting right now."