Teen Stabbing Victim Made It to Security Booth. It Was Empty

Manhattan police are questioning several teens in the stabbing death of an 18-year-old Barnard College freshman. A school security guard found Tessa Majors of Charlottesville, Va., stabbed multiple times in Morningside Park around 5:30pm Wednesday, per the New York Post. She was pronounced dead at a hospital. The New York Daily News reports by way of sources that Majors was apparently attacked as she descended a set of stairs. She managed to climb them after the stabbing. Once at the top, she collapsed outside of an empty security booth, which is where the guard found her after completing his rounds. Police believe she was the victim of an armed robbery.

WABC notes a group of teens is being questioned, and the Daily News reports police have taken a 16-year-old boy into custody. Though they did not specify the arrest was connected to Majors' death, he was reportedly found near by wearing a green jacket—an item of clothing described by a witness. Barnard College President Sian Leah Beilock had announced the "devastating murder of an extraordinary young woman" who "was just beginning her journey at Barnard and in life" in a statement to students late Wednesday. "It's so horrifying," a Barnard sophomore tells the New York Times, adding Morningside Park "always had a weird vibe." (More stabbing death stories.)