Boy, 14, Fatally Stabs Schoolmate in Bronx, Police Say
NEW YORK — A 14-year-old Bronx boy who may have been teased and robbed by a 14-year-old schoolmate stabbed him to death Wednesday afternoon outside their school, the police said.
The stabbing took place around 3 p.m. in front of Intermediate School 117, the police said.
Several boys who said they saw the attack said the victim confronted the boy as he was leaving school, punching him and kneeing him in the nose. The suspect pulled out a knife and stabbed the other 14-year-old as teachers and school safety officers ran over to stop the fight, they said.
The wounded boy, Timothy Crump, who was stabbed three times in the torso, was taken to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, where he died. A black-handled knife was recovered at the scene, the police said. The police arrested the schoolmate, who was identified as Noel Estevez of the Bronx. He was charged as an adult Wednesday night with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Investigators said the suspect may have been teased by and, at an earlier date, robbed by the boy who was fatally stabbed. But as of Wednesday evening, what precipitated the stabbing was not known, and the boy was being questioned.
Marisol Perez, 43, a neighbor of Noel’s, said Timothy was part of a group of boys who had picked on the suspect.
“They used to hit him, bother him, tell him he’s a bum, that he didn’t have nowhere to live,’’ she said.
Perez said that Noel had been released from the hospital a few days ago and that he had told her he dreaded returning to school.
“He knew something was going to happen to him,’’ she said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Perez said, she received a call from her daughter, who said something had happened to Noel. She ran downstairs and saw about half a dozen boys banging on his door. Perez said she called the police after the boys told her that her neighbor had stabbed one of their friends and that they were planning to kill him.
At the apartment where the victim lived, no one answered the door Wednesday night. Tyrone Rivers, a neighbor who said he was a friend of Timothy’s mother, said the boy often played with other neighborhood children.
“He’s not a troublemaker,’’ Rivers said. “Everyone is in shock.’’
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