Rashaun Weaver, 14 charged for robbery and murdering a student with stab.Tessa Majors, a first-year Barnard College student, was fatally stabbed in Morningside Park in December.
New York City authorities announced Saturday that the teenager who allegedly stabbed 18-year-old Barnard student Tessa Majors to death in December has been indicted on murder charges.
The suspect, Rashaun Weaver, 14, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder — one for intentional murder and the other for felony murder — one count of first-degree robbery, and three counts of second-degree robbery, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said in a press conference.
Weaver, who was taken into custody on Friday night, has been charged as an adult.
New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea told reporters, “We are confident that we have the person in custody who stabbed her.”
Majors, a first-year Barnard student was walking through Morningside Park in Manhattan on a December night when three teens tried to rob her, authorities said. She was stabbed several times with a knife.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison told reporters that Majors then staggered onto the street, and a security guard called the police. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Her death led to an outpouring of sadness and concern among students on the New York City college campus.
Julia Papas, a 20-year-old Barnard junior, told BuzzFeed News at the time: “It’s hard as a student because I think we’re all feeling like it could have been any of us.”
Vance said Saturday that the 14-year-old’s arrest “is a major milestone on the path to justice for Tessa Majors.”
Weaver is the second person to face charges in connection with Majors’ death. In December, police arrested a 13-year-old, who was later charged with robbery, criminal possession of a weapon, and second-degree felony murder.