A teenage boy was arrested earlier this month in connection with the fatal stabbing of another teen in what appears to be a gang-related murder, the New York Times reported.
The unnamed 14-year-old suspect was also charged with manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in the fatal stabbing of a 13-year-old on a city bus on Staten Island on October 6.
Speaking to reporters that evening, John Chell, NYPD Chief of Patrol called the incident a “tragic homicide” that appeared to be gang-related.
According to Chell, the stabbing took place on a city bus traveling near Littlefield Avenue on Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island at about 2:30 p.m. An argument broke out between the suspect and the victim, identified by police as 13-year-old Syles Ular. During the altercation, witnesses spotted a knife as the two teens exchanged gang signs.
The 14-year-old stabbed Syles multiple times before fleeing the bus. When a bystander revealed that the boy had just stabbed someone on the bus, a retired NYPD sergeant who was in the area chased after the suspect. The sergeant caught up with the boy about three blocks away and held him until the police arrived.
Chief Chell described the bystander who alerted the retired sergeant of the stabbing as a “good Samaritan.”
The victim was transported to Staten Island University Hospital South where he was later pronounced dead.
The fatal stabbing on the city bus was only one of several violent incidents that occurred on October 6 involving armed teenagers.
According to Chief Chell, a 16-year-old Brooklyn girl was shot in the ankle around noon that day while walking to a bus stop. Not long after the stabbing aboard the city bus, two adjacent high schools in Manhattan were placed on lockdown after it was reported that a 15-year-old student brought a gun to school During a search of the building, NYPD recovered two guns and a fake handgun from three different students.
Later that night, a 17-year-old girl was shot in the head and killed in an apartment in Staten Island.
