14-year-old boy arrested in stabbing death of Barnard College student Tessa Majors

Tessa Majors (CNN)

CNN – A 14-year-old boy has been arrested in the stabbing death of Barnard College freshman Tessa Majors in New York City, police and prosecutors said Saturday.

The boy faces two counts of murder in the second degree -- one for intentional murder, the other for felony murder committed during a robbery, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance told reporters. He's also charged with four robbery counts.

Recommended Videos



The boy was arrested without incident at a Harlem housing project Friday night, police said.

Majors, 18, was walking in Manhattan's Morningside Park near Barnard College on December 11 when she was attacked, NYPD said. She was a freshman at the college.

"Sadly, it cannot bring back this young woman, this student, this victim," NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said of the arrest. "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."

Vance said the criminal complaint includes "substantial blood analysis," smart phone and video evidence and a recorded statement from the defendant.

"It paints a gruesome picture of what this young woman endured in her final moments," he said. "As alleged, some of the last words she was known to have said were, 'Help me. I'm being robbed.'"

The defendant has been remanded into custody and will be arraigned February 19, Vance said. He is being charged as an adult.

Shea said authorities had been in touch with the Majors family.

"Sadly, there is no comfort that we can give them and for that, we are sorry," he said.

Barnard College is an all-women’s school in Manhattan with more than 2,600 students. The school’s campus stretches from West 116th Street to West 120th Street off Broadway in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City.