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Teen Who Fled Police Questioning In Tessa Majors Case Taken Into Custody, Then Released Hours Later
The 14-year-old bolted from a car last week while on his way to speak to investigators, sparking a manhunt. He has yet to be charged in the case.
A 14-year-old boy being sought in the fatal stabbing of Barnard College freshman Tessa Majors was taken into custody Thursday after going on the lam last week, only to be released hours later.
The teen, who is not being identified because of his age, is believed to have been part of a group that attacked the 18-year-old Majors on Dec. 11 in upper Manhattan’s Morningside Park in what police have called a robbery gone wrong.
“We have located this individual,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison wrote in a tweet Thursday morning, adding that he was brought to Harlem's 26th precinct. “Thank you to everyone who reached out with information.”
By Thursday afternoon, Harrison noted that the youth had not been charged.
"Although he has since been released to the custody of his attorneys, the investigation remains very active," Harrison posted in a follow-up tweet.
He then praised the work of the investigators.
"Our detectives are the best at what they do and are committed to finding justice for all parties involved," he wrote in the tweet.
The teen was originally set to meet with New York City investigators back on Dec. 16, but he never showed up, having leaped out of a car he was traveling in alongside his attorney.
His disappearance led cops to comb the area around Harlem’s 125th Street and Park Avenue.
Shortly after Majors' slaying, on Dec. 12, police arrested of a 13-year-old boy who was soon charged with murder, robbery and weapons crimes. While authorities don’t believe he stabbed Majors, they say the teen looked on as the college freshman was killed.
The 13-year-old remains held in a juvenile detention facility while awaiting a trial that is expected to be conducted in Family Court, according to The New York Daily News.
On the evening she died, the aspiring writer and musician was walking in Morningside Park and approached by a group of teenagers. They allegedly put Majors in a chokehold were trying to take items from her pocket. She tried to fight back, attempting to scratch and bite one of the teens on the finger.
Majors was repeatedly stabbed during the struggle and managed to stagger up a set of stairs at the park and alert a campus security guard. She later died from her wounds.
A medical examiner announced last week that Majors succumbed to stab wounds to her torso, according to WABC.
Investigators also brought another 14-year-old suspect in for questioning, but he was also later released from custody.
