An 18-year-old college student was repeatedly stabbed by a group of assailants in a Manhattan park on Wednesday night before stumbling away for help, only to collapse before she could find any. The woman, identified as Tessa Majors, a first-year student at Barnard College, was later found collapsed in front of a security booth near Columbia University by a security guard who had been out on patrol. But after being rushed to St. Luke’s hospital, she succumbed to her injuries. Law enforcement sources cited by the
New York Daily News said a group of suspects approached the woman in Morningside Park and tried to rob her before stabbing her in the torso several times. She was reportedly walking down a set of steps to the park on W. 116th St. near Morningside Drive when she was surrounded by the group.After the attack, she managed to climb back up the stairs but collapsed in front of a Columbia security guard booth that at that moment happened to be empty. ABC News reports that she was found by the security guard about a half-hour after collapsing on the sidewalk. Mary, a woman who works as a nanny in the area, told The Daily Beast she received an alert from the Citizen app around 7:05 p.m. that there had been an assault with a knife a few hundred feet away. She looked out the window and saw a woman lying in the street as a
police officer performed CPR. “There were about six cops in total at that point surrounding the girl,” Mary said in a text message. She said police were still searching the area when she left around 10:30 p.m.“I hope they catch the guy, no one should ever have to fear their walk home,” she told The Daily Beast.Police have not yet announced any suspects, but sources cited by the Daily News said a 16-year-old boy was being questioned in connection with the attack. In an email to students, Barnard College President Sian Leah Beilock said Majors was fatally stabbed during an armed robbery in Morningside Park. “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,” Beilock said in the email. “This is an unthinkable tragedy that has shaken us to our core.”Majors interned last spring with Augusta Free Press, an independent newspaper in Virginia. Her father is the novelist Inman Majors, who’s written six books and teaches English at James Madison University.“18 years ago today my life got redefined in all the right ways when this little bundle of fun came into the world,” he wrote on
Facebook last May. “Happy Birthday to Tessa Rane Majors, a fantastic young lady. I can’t wait to see what the next 18 years have in store.”