Tessa Majors, 18, was stabbed to death in a Manhattan park on Wednesday night at 5.30pm. Photo / Instagram
Tessa Majors, 18, was stabbed to death in a Manhattan park on Wednesday night at 5.30pm. Photo / Instagram
A 13-year-old has been arrested in connection with the stabbing of a Barnard College freshman in New York, according to two sources with knowledge of the case.
The young teen is charged with felony murder - a homicide that's committed in the course of another serious crime - and his case will be handled in family court in Manhattan, sources said.
In New York state, minors his age can only be tried in adult court for certain crimes, and felony murder is not included in that list, reports The Washington Post.
Tessa Majors, an 18-year-old from Charlottesville, Virginia, was attacked in a park near campus Wednesday evening, police said. On Friday, sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorised to discuss the case said a 13-year-old had been arrested in connection with her murder.
Rodney Harrison, chief of detectives in the New York City Police Department, said Thursday that it appeared that one to three people were involved in the armed robbery and that during the struggle, one of them pulled out a knife and stabbed Majors several times.
After the stabbing, Majors (pictured) staggered to a nearby security guard booth for help but found it vacant. Photo / Instagram
Majors was able to stagger up stairs leading out of Morningside Park, and a campus security officer called 911, but she was pronounced dead at the hospital that night.
A memorial of flowers rose on the Barnard campus as people mourned her sudden death, and New York's mayor vowed increased police patrols near Barnard and Columbia University's campuses. The schools are affiliated.
Majors was a musician, a singer and songwriter, and an aspiring journalist, according to friends and family. Her band had just released an album and had played its first New York gig.
In Charlottesville, she was honored for her academics at the St. Anne's-Belfield School. As well as playing instruments and performing music, she led the creative writing club, ran cross-country and volunteered on political campaigns. David Lourie, the head of school, called her "a shining light" in the community. Majors was "a good friend, respected classmate, trusted teammate, and creative and passionate musician," he said in a written statement. "Her death is an immeasurable loss."
At a campus gathering Thursday evening, Barnard College President Sian Leah Beilock said Majors had been described as "a blazing talent," and said they would continue to honor her, mourn her and celebrate her life. She called on students at the school to support one another.
People pause and place a candle at a make-shift memorial for Tessa Majors inside the Barnard campus. Photo / AP
"Some of you may be scared," she said. "Our faith in the safety of our community and our city has been brutally violated. The unthinkable has happened in a park so many of us have spent time in and valued as a place of refuge and peace."
She said that she and Columbia University's president, Lee Bollinger, were committed to doing everything they could to re-instill a sense of safety.
Bollinger told the gathering the attacks had left him unmoored for several reasons: because Majors was one of the youngest members of the community; because as a parent and grandparent he could readily imagine the pain her family is feeling; and because the tragedy had happened only a few yards in front of the home where he and his wife live, "so we will forever have the searing reality of that physical proximity."
Bollinger said, "All of the horror that encompasses this death should not and cannot detract from the appreciation of Tess Majors, the person. Tess must have been extraordinary. I am slowly beginning to get a glimpse of a brilliant young individual.
"Tess will be in my mind, and our collective minds, for a long time to come."
