The parents of an 18-year-old Barnard College freshman who was murdered last week have released a statement criticizing the head of the NYPD union for comments claiming Tessa Majors had been in Morningside Park to buy marijuana before she was stabbed to death, allegedly by a group of teens who intended to rob her.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, police believe three juvenile males are responsible for the fatal attack. One 13-year-old boy was arrested on Thursday, the day after the murder, and allegedly confessed to his involvement and implicated another male as the person who stabbed Majors. That teen is still at large, and police arrested a 14-year-old boy on Friday who was believed to be the third member of the group, but have since released him without charges.
According to the Daily News, Mullins claimed that Majors had been in the park to buy drugs during an appearance on a Sunday morning radio show.
“An 18-year-old college student at one of the most prestigious universities is murdered in a park, and what I’m understanding, she was in the park to buy marijuana,” Mullins reportedly said.
“And you think about that, we don’t enforce marijuana laws anymore. We’re basically hands-off on the enforcement of marijuana,” Mullins said.
Mullins is the only source to have made this claim publicly in the days since Majors died, and according to the Daily News report, the NYPD has refused to comment on the rumors. At least one friend reportedly told police that Majors had gone running in the park on the evening of her murder.
In their statement, the Majors family said they want to know “what exactly happened to Tess and who committed her murder. 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.”
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