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Man Who Allegedly Slit Teen Instagram Star’s Throat Before Posting Horrific Photo Online Formally Charged With Murder
Police say Brandon Clark brutally attacked Bianca Devins with a knife after the two got into an argument while attending a concert in New York City.
The man who allegedly shared a horrific photo of a 17-year-old social media star's dead body has been formally charged with her murder.
Brandon Clark, 21, has been charged with second degree murder for the brutal killing of Bianca Devins in Utica, New York, according to the Utica Police Department.
Early Sunday morning police “received numerous calls informing them that a male individual had posted to a social media site that he had killed his girlfriend, and was threatening to harm himself,” according to the police department.
That man, believed to be Clark, also called 911 himself, allegedly making incriminating comments about Devins' murder while simultaneously threatening to kill himself.
Police said they were able to track the call to Poe Street in Utica. After being dispatched to the area, the first arriving officer found a “black SUV with a male lying on the ground beside it. The officer approached this male, and almost immediately, he began to stab himself in the neck with a knife.”
After he stabbed himself, the responding officer began to piece together the tragedy that had occurred.
“After attempting to injure himself, [Clark] laid down across a green ... tarp that was on the ground some distance away,” police wrote. “The officer immediately noticed brown hair protruding from beneath the tarp and inquired as to where the injured female was. The male advised him that the female was beneath the tarp, and proceeded to pull out a cell phone. It was at this time that is believed that the male took self-photographs of himself laying across the deceased female.”
Other officers arrived and they were able to disarm Clark, according to police. He was rushed to a hospital where he underwent surgery for the injuries, the New York Post reports. He is expected to survive. Investigators removed the tarp and found Devins had “suffered extensive injuries to her neck, and was obviously deceased.”
Police say Clark slit Devins’ throat.
Although calls to police indicated that Clark and Devins were dating, police did not confirm that. They said the “two had met on the social media platform Instagram approximately two months ago” before their “relationship progressed into a personally intimate one. They had spent time together, and were acquainted with each other’s families."
Police said the pair attended a concert together Saturday night in New York City, more than four hours away, leaving to return home at around 10 p.m. They got into some sort of argument at the concert that continued during the trip home, police said. When they returned to Utica, police say Clark "produced a large, black handled knife, and used this to inflict the injuries that caused her death.”
Police say he took photos of her after killing her and uploaded them to Discord, a social app for gamers. It was Discord members who called police to report the violence.
“We can confirm that the images distributed of both the victim and the offender’s injuries are authentic and occurred at the time of the incident,” police said.
The photos went viral and were seen on 4chan and other platforms.
Clark was allegedly also posting photos to Instagram Stories as officers had him at gunpoint, police told BuzzFeed News. His apparent Instagram handle is @yesjuliet and around the time of the alleged attack he posted a photo from his car which read, "Here comes hell. It's redemption, right?"
Instagram issued a statement Monday stating that they had to remove an image from account @yesjuliet for violating its policies, NBC New York reports. They stated that they also had taken steps to stop others from resharing that image.
Devins, of Utica, had just graduated high school and had plans to study psychology at college.
Her family described her as “a talented artist, a loving sister, daughter, and cousin, and a wonderful young girl, taken from us all too soon.”
They said she’s joined her cat Belle in heaven.
“Bianca’s smile brightened our lives,” they stated. “She will always be remembered as our Princess.”
One of the Instagram accounts believed to belong to Bianca has more than 40,000 followers. She was a 4chan user and was known for her posts on Tumblr and Instagram.
