A fourteen-year-old boy has been charged in the stabbing death of his classmate aboard a bus in New York City. News arose late on Sunday that the body of a deceased 13-year-old had been identified by family, and now police have found a chief suspect in a 14-year-old boy. The two students were classmates at IS 7.
According to Daily Mail, the attack occurred on a bus around 2:30 p.m. The victim approached the driver, grabbing his stomach and wheezing for air, saying that he was having trouble breathing. The boy then made his way to the back of the bus, where he collapsed and died.
The suspect was seen fleeing the bus on foot before disposing of the murder weapon and continuing to run away for a few blocks. Luckily, a retired sergeant of the New York City Police Department was aboard the same bus and saw the young boy fleeing.
The retired cop pursued on foot, starting a chase that lasted for a couple of city blocks. The ex-officer was informed of the stabbing by another passenger who exclaimed at the horror unraveling before them, “This person just stabbed somebody.”
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell spoke to reporters on Friday about the incident. He said, “Witnesses state there was an argument on the bus, a knife is produced, and gang signs were being shown back and forth.”
The 14-year-old boy is being charged with the murder of 13-year-old Syles Ular, along with counts of manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. Chell also talked about the civilians who worked to bring the suspect to justice. Chell said, “Three independent people were on-scene helping. The retired sergeant started to follow the male who did the stabbing.”
Chell continued, speaking about a possible motive for the attack. “At this time, another witness points him out as the one who just stabbed somebody and the sergeant affects the arrest. Again, tragic, tragic homicide. We believe this motive is gang-related.”
A 15-year-old boy who saw the altercation spoke to New York Daily News and had this to say about the attack, “(He) pulled a knife out of his pocket, grabbed him and stabbed him. They were wrestling back and forth. Over and over, he kept stabbing him.”
Victim Syles Ulan’s cousin also spoke to NY Daily News about the perception that the community had about her beloved cousin. She said, “You see everything. He was very much loved. Everybody knows him around here. They know his family. He used to play basketball too, with all the kids around the block.”
She continued, “He was a sweet little boy. He don’t bother nobody. Yeah, kids go through stuff and things like that, but it wasn’t nothing serious.”
Such a horrific story of child-on-child violence is a hard mental image to forget. It is a symptom of the greater moral corruption ruining America’s once great cities. Something must be done about the rampant crime in places like New York, sooner rather than later.
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