Teen Suspected in Tessa Majors’ Murder Flees Before NYPD Questioning
MANHUNT
Conrad MacKethan
Police are searching for a teenage boy who was expected to come in for questioning in connection with the murder of Barnard College first-year student Tessa Majors but fled while on his way there, three law enforcement sources told NBC New York. The teen was last seen running from a car Monday afternoon in Harlem, and the NYPD has begun a search in the area, according to the sources. A 13-year-old boy has been charged with second-degree murder and other crimes as a juvenile in connection with Majors’ death, and a 14-year-old was questioned by the NYPD but was later released. Police are still trying to identify all of the attackers allegedly involved in the incident.
Majors, 18, was in Morningside Park on Wednesday evening when she was fatally attacked in a “robbery gone wrong,” according to the NYPD. The medical examiner’s office ruled Majors’ death a homicide on Monday, saying she died from multiple stab wounds to her torso. Ed Mullins, the president of the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association, came under fire Sunday after he said in a radio interview that Majors was in the park to buy marijuana. On Monday, Mullins apologized to the Majors family, who slammed him for “intentionally or unintentionally” victim-blaming her. Mullins wrote in a letter that “as I thought was clear and obvious, in no way did I intend to suggest on any level that some type of blame toward Tessa Majors was warranted.”