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A 46-year-old engineer was stabbed to death at his daughter’s birthday party Tuesday night by his father-in-law, police said.

Bayapa Lingala, 77, is in jail on suspicion of stabbing Sujay R. Nooka in the chest about 10:30 p.m. in their home at 6611 S. 21st St., Officer Katie Flood said.

Police got to the house and found 44-year-old Uma Nooka holding her husband, who had a 1.5-inch stab wound to his upper left chest, Officer Russell Schoenbeck said in an affidavit to jail Lingala.

Rescue crews took Sujay Nooka to the hospital, where doctors rushed him into surgery but pronounced him dead about 3 a.m., Flood said.

“He’s half of my heart. I lost half of my heart now,” said his brother, Vijay Nooka. “Every time, everywhere, I can see him. I can feel him.”

In the affidavit, Schoenbeck said Uma Nooka told police her father stabbed her husband, and another relative told officers he watched in the basement as Lingala stabbed Sujay Nooka. The relative pushed him away before helping the younger man upstairs, the court document says.

Officers found Lingala and two knives in his basement bedroom, Schoenbeck said. One of them was about 8 inches long and covered in blood.