Growing calls for more security in NYC area where Tessa Majors was murdered
Todd Piro reports from Morningside Park on the uptick in crime.
The family of murdered college student Tessa Majors is speaking out Monday against claims from a New York City police union boss that she was looking to buy marijuana around the time of her death, calling them “deeply inappropriate” and “irresponsible”.
Majors, an 18-year-old freshman at Barnard College, was found stabbed to death Wednesday inside Manhattan’s Morningside Park. Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins on Sunday suggested that Majors was in the park because she was looking for marijuana – and his union is now engaged in a war of words with Mayor Bill de Blasio over those claims.
“The remarks by Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins we find deeply inappropriate, as they intentionally or unintentionally direct blame onto Tess, a young woman, for her own murder,” her family said in a statement Monday. “We would ask Mr. Mullins not to engage in such irresponsible public speculation, just as the NYPD asked our family not to comment as it conducts the investigation.”
Police have released few details surrounding the circumstances of Majors' stabbing, but have arrested and charged a 13-year-old boy with second-degree murder, first and second-degree robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.
Officers from the New York City Police Department inspect a crime scene where an 18-year-old college student was stabbed to death on Wednesday, Dec. 11. (Greg Norman/Fox News)
The uproar began Sunday when Mullins appeared on ‘The Cats Roundtable with John Catsimatidis’ radio program and spoke about Majors, whom he described as a “young girl with a bright future, from a good family.”
“We have an 18-year-old college student at one of the most prestigious universities in the country is murdered in a park,” Mullins said. “And what I’m understanding is she was in the park to buy marijuana.
Barnard College students react to grisly fatal stabbing of female freshman
Students at NYC's all-female Barnard College react to the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old freshman Tessa Rane Majors, who was killed Wednesday evening near Morningside Park in upper Manhattan.
“You think about that -- we don’t enforce marijuana laws anymore, we are basically hands off on the enforcement of marijuana,” he continued. “Here we have a student, murdered … and we have a common denominator of marijuana.”
De Blasio blasted the comments later Sunday.
“Think of Tessa’s parents, her friends. This is heartless. It’s infuriating,” he wrote on Twitter. “We don’t shame victims in this city.
SUSPECT, 13, IN MURDER OF TESSA MAJORS, IS ORDERED HELD WITHOUT BAIL
The Sergeants Benevolent Association then pushed back against the Democrat’s criticism, posting on its Twitter account that “heartless is you allowing lawlessness to run the city of NY.
“You’ve weaken the NYPD. This young lady should still be alive. Tell the TRUTH Bill. Tell New Yorkers what really happens in the streets of NYC. This girl was an innocent victim. YOU have created chaos! Tell the truth!” it said.
People pause and place a candle at a makeshift memorial for Tessa Majors inside the Barnard campus on Thursday, Dec. 12. (AP)
On Monday morning, the Sergeants Benevolent Association took another dig at De Blasio, claiming that “NYC is becoming a cesspool thanks to the Mayor.”
“Shame on DeBlasio,” it tweeted.
Majors’ family, in their statement, said it is “interested in knowing what exactly happened to Tess and who committed her murder.”
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“We believe, for the immediate safety of the community and the surrounding schools, that should be everyone’s top priority and we are grateful to the men and women of the NYPD for all of their efforts,” the statement read.
“Our family would like to thank the thousands of strangers who have taken the time to console us, share in our grief, and let us know we are not alone during this terrible time,” it added. “Tess would not have been surprised by this beautiful reminder of our shared humanity.”
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