A second teenage has been arrested in connection to the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Barnard College student Tessa Majors, the New York City Police Department said Saturday morning. Majors was killed on Dec. 11, 2019 in Morningside Park, where several individuals allegedly attacked her. The 14-year-old boy arrested this week is suspected of stabbing Majors.
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NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said the boy, identified as Rashaun Weaver, was taken into custody without incident, reports PIX11. The boy will be charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one count of robbery and three counts of robbery in the second degree, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. Weaver will be charged as an adult and is now being held at a juvenile facility.
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Vance said Weaver was taken into custody after he made a recorded statement about the stabbing and there was “substantial blood analysis.” The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
“It paints a gruesome picture of what this young woman endured in her final moments,” Vance said of the criminal complaint, reports CNN. “As alleged, some of the last words she was known to have said was, ‘Help me! I’m being robbed.’”
Police said Majors was attacked and stabbed when she was walking in Morningside Park on Dec. 11. She stumbled up stairs to street level before she collapsed at a security booth near Barnard campus, NYPD Chief of Detectives, Rodney Harrison said. A school security officer then called 911. Majors’ was later ruled a homicide.
According to the complaint, there is surveillance footage showing Majors, the suspect and two other young men entering the park at the same time. A witness told police he heard a young male say, “Gimme your phone. You got some weed, gimme that too” before Majors screamed and said her last known words.
DNA found at the scene came from Majors’ fingernails and matched the defendant, the complaint reads. There was also an audio recording in which the teen admitted he was in the park and tried to take Majors’ phone.
Police previously arrested a 13-year-old boy, who said one of his friends grabbed Majors while another allegedly stabbed her and took items from her pockets. The boy allegedly picked up the knife after his friend dropped it, police said. He was charged in family court.
Another boy, 14, was questioned by police but was released without charges, police said.
The stabbing surprised New York residents, who have seen the number of homicides decline in the city.
“Sadly, it cannot bring back this young woman, this student, this victim,” Shea said after the second arrest was announced, reports CNN. “That is something even the best most impartial investigation simply cannot do. What we can do is say that we are confident we have the person in custody who stabbed her.”
The suspect will be arraigned on Wednesday, Feb. 19.
Majors was a freshman at Barnard College, an all-women’s school in Manhattan. She was from Charlottesville, Virginia.
Photo credit: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
