WESTBROOK – Police are still hunting for a Worcester, Mass., man they said fatally stabbed a Westbrook resident last week and put his wife in the hospital, following an argument that appeared to involve drugs.

Those who knew Robert Stubbs, 40, of 73 Central St., said he was a nice man who kept to himself and took care of his family. Neighbors said they were surprised that he could be stabbed to death in his own home, saying most of the people who live on the street, like Stubbs, have families with small children.

Stubbs’ Westbrook neighbors said they heard a loud argument at the time of the incident, around 10:30 p.m. on April 21, and saw a man flee in a vehicle. Stubbs died of multiple stab wounds, and his wife Melissa, 27, was wounded in the attack. Maine Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said she was treated for her injuries and released from an area hospital within days of the attack.

According to police, the autopsy report confirmed the cause of death. Police are classifying the crime as a homicide.

Police said the suspect, Tareek S. Hendricks, 30, of Worcester, Mass., who they said goes by the street name “BK,” is about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 200 pounds. He has the word “LIFE” tattooed on his left fingers. Police believe he was driven from the scene and dropped off along Washington Avenue in Portland.

Police said Stubbs had an argument with another man prior to the stabbing, which they said could be drug-related. Police said Kendricks and Stubbs knew each other and had spent “significant” time together the day of the attack.

According to Donald J. Gilbert, who owns the building at 73 Central St., a duplex, Stubbs moved in with his wife about 21?2 years ago. Gilbert called Stubbs “a good all-around guy” who worked at various odd jobs at the time.

Gilbert said Stubbs went on disability several months after moving in, following a fall off a roof where he had been working. Despite his injuries, Gilbert said Stubbs still remained active, occasionally asking Gilbert for a rake to clean up the front yard, or some cans of paint to use on the house itself.

“He seemed to be the kind of guy who wanted to help out,” he said.

Gilbert said Stubbs liked to tinker, and often collected small items like toasters or gas grills in the hopes of fixing them up and selling them. It didn’t always work out, but, Gilbert said, Stubbs made an effort to throw away things he could not fix.

Johnny Price, 47, lives in the other apartment in the building, and spoke highly of his neighbor, whom he referred to as “Bobby.” Price said the two had a casual enough relationship that they could enter each other’s home unannounced, and often did, doing the things neighbors do, like ask for a cup of coffee or borrow some sugar.

“I could walk in his house anytime I wanted, he could come over my house. We had that kind of trust with each other,” he said. “He was a straight-up guy.”

Despite the police saying drugs might be a motive for the stabbing, Price said he never saw any evidence of drugs being dealt or used by his neighbor.

“If something like that was going on, me and Bobby would’ve had words,” he said.

Gilbert said he saw no signs of drug use prior to the stabbing, either. On his rental application, Gilbert said, Stubbs gave no indication of a past criminal record. After the stabbing, Gilbert said, there was some evidence of drug paraphernalia found on the second floor of the apartment, but no signs of drugs at all.

Overall, Gilbert said, Stubbs was a model tenant. Gilbert said he received no complaints about Stubbs at all. Gilbert said that Stubbs’ rent was partially subsidized by the Shalom House Inc., an organization based in Portland that provides a variety of services, including housing subsidies, to people coping with mental illness. A representative from Shalom House declined to comment on Stubbs or even confirm that Shalom House subsidized his rent.

Gilbert said that Stubbs occasionally fell behind with his own portion of the rent, but always got caught up quickly. Within the last three months, Gilbert said, Stubbs had fallen behind again, but Gilbert didn’t pressure Stubbs to pay.

“I just overlooked it,” he said. “I thought, ‘He’ll catch up with me,’ because he would have, if this hadn’t happened.”

Price, Stubbs’ next-door neighbor, said he was home at the time of the attack, but didn’t know someone had been stabbed.

“That’s not what it sounded like,” he said.

Price said he heard a lot of “banging” that sounded like people wrestling on the building’s second floor. Then, he said, the commotion continued down the stairs.

“It sounded like 20 people were coming down the stairs,” he said.

But immediately afterward, Price said, all he heard was a lot of yelling at the front door. Price said he recognized Stubbs’ voice, along with his wife’s. Price said he also heard a third man arguing with them. Then, he said, “it got quiet.” The entire incident took about five or six minutes, he said.

Price heard Robert and Melissa Stubbs talking to each other afterward, and said he assumed it was nothing more than a heated argument that was over. There was no screaming or any other sound to indicate distress, Price said, which he would have expected to hear if someone had been badly hurt, so he didn’t call the police.

“That was what’s bothering me,” he said. “If I knew anything like that was going on, I would have gotten involved.”

Allen Hicks, 23, lives in a second-floor apartment at 78 Central St., almost directly across from 73 Central St., and said he and his fiance?e heard and saw the argument out their front window.

“When we saw it, he was already on the porch, trying to get back in,” he said, referring to a man he saw yelling. Hicks said the man looked like he was trying to force his way in, shouting, “Gimme my (stuff).”

Eventually, Hicks said, the man left, crossing the street to a vehicle waiting for him, which then took off, heading in the direction of the Prospect Street end of Central Street. Hicks said he wasn’t sure what kind of vehicle it was, but it looked like a small- to mid-sized SUV, like a Jeep or Chevrolet Blazer.

Gilbert said he visited the apartment after the stabbing to survey the damage. The handrail for the staircase to the second floor had been torn out of the wall, he said, but there were no signs of blood anywhere in the house except by the front door, where the neighbors heard and saw the argument.

“The blood seemed to be all in one area by the front door,” he said.

Cheryl Day, who owns a building at 94-96 Central St., said when she moved to the street in 1995, it had a bad reputation. Back then, before a lot of what she called “riff-raff” moved away, she wouldn’t have been surprised to see something like this happen.

“Now I would, because there’s been so many new people coming in, children and families,” she said.

Danielle Taulbee, 32, who lives at 91 Central St. a few doors down from Stubbs, said she has only lived on the street about a month, but already she has gotten a sense of the community. She said she doesn’t know personal details about people on the street, but there is enough familiarity that she knows she can rely on them.

“Everybody doesn’t know everybody, but everybody looks out for each other,” she said. “I know I could go across the street to my neighbors in an emergency.”

Taulbee said she grew up just outside Cleveland, and is the single mother of a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old. Before having children, she said violence on a street where she lives might have been less worrisome.

“It’s disturbing because now I’m a mom,” she said.

Carolyn Roukey, 42, said she has been living at 78 Central St. in the downstairs apartment for seven years, and also said the neighborhood was a quiet place, where kids are often seen playing.

“That’s why (the stabbing) was so shocking,” she said.

A search of American Journal archives show the last murder in Westbrook was a murder-suicide in April 2009. Ken Taylor, police said, stabbed his wife Belinda to death, then stabbed himself.