On Wednesday afternoon, an 18-year-old female Barnard College student from Virginia was stabbed to death in a Manhattan park allegedly by a group of young men who mugged her, then killed her.
Barnard College student Tessa Majors, 18, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in Morningside Park last night in what police say was a brutal robbery. https://t.co/2JLizJxAUr pic.twitter.com/0vuSeQTM72
— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) December 12, 2019
Tessa Majors, from Charlottesville, Virginia, was walking down a flight of steps into Morningside Park on West 116th Street at roughly 5:30 p.m. when the assailants attacked her, according to The Daily Mail, which added, “According to police sources, they demanded money from her and stabbed her multiple times in the stomach before fleeing.” After Majors was transported to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s hospital she was pronounced dead, as The Columbia Spectator reported.
The Daily Mail reported that police sources stated a 16-year-old boy, who is a known robbery suspect, was taken into custody from a nearby housing project; a group of young men in their teens were also interrogated. The Daily Mail added that the 16-year-old taken into custody was wearing a green jacket similar to one described by a witness to the attack; a trail of blood was found that led to an apartment the teen was known to frequent.
Majors’ grandmother, Martha Burton, told The New York Daily News, “I guess being from a smaller town she was too naive to think about walking alone in New York City. She just shouldn’t have been there.”
One 20-year-old female student told The New York Times, “My friend is throwing up in the bathroom. She’s so scared.”
Barnard College president Sian Leah Beilock released a statement saying, “Tessa was just beginning her journey at Barnard and in life. We mourn this devastating murder of an extraordinary young woman and member of our community. This is an unthinkable tragedy that has shaken us to our core.” Ms. Beilock said she and Barnard College dean Leslie Grinage had communicated with Majors’ parents, who were traveling to New York.
The New York Times reported, “Ms. Majors’s Instagram account shows a young woman new to the city and eager to develop her music. She sang and played guitar in a band called Patient 0, which recently played its first concert in New York. ‘Safe to say the first NYC show went well ;)’ she wrote on Instagram on Oct. 11. A month earlier, the band released an album called ‘Girl Problems.’”
The Columbia Spectator added, “Barnard’s Furman Counseling Center will remain open all night and during the day tomorrow, and Columbia University Counseling and Psychological Services will open until 2:15 a.m. on the fifth floor of Lerner. Kromm and several staff members from Columbia Residential Life will be in Wallach’s first floor Lounge until 4 a.m. to speak to students.”
The New York Times noted, “Major crime was down about 1 percent this year through Dec. 1 compared with the same period last year, but murder was up about 8 percent, according to Police Department statistics. There had been 298 murders by Dec. 1, compared with 275 to that point in 2018, police data showed.”
Update: an earlier version of this story based on news reports incorrectly stated that the security booth was unattended. A Columbia university spokesperson has corrected those reports, stating: “The public safety officer assigned to 116th Street and Morningside Drive was at his post last night when the victim emerged from the park, and he came to her aid immediately upon recognizing that she was injured. Reports to the contrary are inaccurate. Officers stationed at this location do not make rounds that cause them to leave their post.”