Death of Tessa Majors

The murder of Tessa Majors occurred near Morningside Park in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York, on December 11, 2019. Majors, an eighteen-year-old female student at Barnard College, was reportedly attacked by three youths who intended to rob her. She was then stabbed multiple times, resulting in her death. One of the suspects, a thirteen-year-old, has been arrested and charged with felony murder. Two fourteen-year-olds were also apprehended and released into the custody of their attorneys without being charged. The investigation remains ongoing. Attack: On December 11, 2019, Majors was walking in Morningside Park, several blocks from Barnard College where she was a student. Shortly before 5:30 p.m., she was attacked by "between one to three people" on a staircase near 116th Street and Morningside Drive. Police speculated that the attack was a "robbery gone wrong". One suspect told police that his two accomplices grabbed Majors, put her in a choke-hold, and stole from her pockets. The suspect also told police that one of the robbers stabbed Majors with a knife. Police believe that Majors bit the finger of one of the attackers to defend herself. Authorities theorized that the primary suspect began stabbing Majors after she bit his finger. After the altercation, Majors' attackers fled and Majors, who was bleeding, staggered up the stairs. A security guard then found her at the top of the staircase. Police responded to the attack after a 911 call, finding Majors with multiple stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital. According to the city's medical examiner, Majors died due to stab wounds to her torso. Investigation and suspects: Police arrested a thirteen-year-old male and charged him with felony murder and felony robbery. The suspect, who was later identified as Zyairr Davis, was arrested after being caught trespassing while wearing clothes that matched the description given of the suspects. He confessed to police about his involvement, telling them that he picked up the knife that would later be used to kill Majors after his partner dropped it. He also told police that he watched as the other two robbers grabbed Majors and put her in a choke-hold. According to the suspect, one of the robbers slashed her several times as she yelled for help. Judge Carol Goldstein set Davis’s trial date for March 16. She also has denied requests by Davis's lawyers for him to be released into his aunt and uncle’s custody due to the seriousness of the charges against him. Police called in a prosecutor on the night of the attack, which was called "unusual". Additionally, all questioning of the thirteen-year-old was video recorded. A second suspect, who is fourteen, was arrested and released on December 12. Police were unable to locate a third suspect, a fourteen-year-old male, for two weeks, but apprehended him on December 26 after publicly releasing his photograph. According to The New York Times, detectives believe that some members of the fourteen-year-old’s family were hiding him until the bite mark on his hand had time to heal. The boy was released into the custody of his attorneys. The New York Times has reported that investigators are trying to link the suspects to the killing through DNA, and that they have tested Majors' mouth and clothing, and the clothing gathered from the suspects. In January 2020, it was announced that the case against the two fourteen-year-old suspects would go before a grand Jury. Victim: Tessa Rane Majors was from Charlottesville, Virginia. She graduated from St. Anne's-Belfield School in May 2019. Majors was completing her first semester as a freshman at Barnard College, a private all-women's school in Manhattan. Majors sang and played bass in a band, Patient 0, which had recently released an album. Her band had played its first gig in New York City that fall and was scheduled to play two more shows in Charlottesville during winter break. Majors also led the creative writing club in high school, ran cross-country, and volunteered on political campaigns. Majors had an interest in journalism, interning at the Augusta Free Press during the spring of 2019, and she planned to study journalism in college. Her father, Inman Majors, is an English professor at James Madison University. Aftermath: The attack prompted new security measures at Morningside Park, including 24-hour guard booths outside the park. The operation hours of the evening safety shuttle bus have also been extended. Media coverage: The New York Times has compared the case to the 1989 Central Park jogger case, which occurred nearby in the North Woods of Central Park; both cases involved "a young white woman attacked in a park and even younger teenage suspects". Gale Brewer, the borough president of Manhattan, urged detectives to proceed with caution to avoid an outcome similar to the jogger case.