Barnard Freshman Stabbed To Death Near Campus, School Says

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NY — A freshman finishing her first semester at Barnard College was fatally stabbed Wednesday during a robbery near the Morningside Heights campus, according to school and police officials.

Tessa Majors, 18, was found shortly after 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Morningside Park, her body riddled with stab wounds, police said. Medics rushed her to Mount Sinai St. Luke's hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Majors was walking through the park when she was approached by a group of muggers and held up at knifepoint, NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said Thursday. During the robbery, one of the men stabbed her repeatedly in the stomach, Harrison said.

Majors was able to stagger to a nearby Columbia security booth. The guard stationed at the post called police after noticing she was injured, police and college officials said.

Two minors were taken into the 26th precinct for questioning and have not yet been released, Harrison said. A third minor is also wanted for questioning. Reports that people had been taken in and released were "not accurate" NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said Thursday. A knife was recovered from the park, and investigators are working to determine if it was the knife used during the murder, police said.

"Tessa was just beginning her journey at Barnard and in life. We mourn this devastating murder of an extraordinary young woman and member of our community," Barnard President Sian Leah Beilock said in a statement.

Beilock described the killing as an "unthinkable tragedy that has shaken us to our core," and added that the school reached out to Majors' family. Her parents are making the trip from Charlottesville, Virginia, to New York City after speaking with Barnard officials, the school announced.

Majors' family released a statement Thursday through the publisher of her father Inman Majors, a novelist and professor at James Madison University.

"We lost a very special, very talented, and very well-loved young woman. Tess shone bright in this world, and our hearts will never be the same," the family statement said.

Barnard officials urged any members of the Barnard community in need of support to visit the school's counseling center, which will remain open through the night in the coming days.

Majors' Instagram account shows that the student was active in music and had just recently released an album with her band Patient 0. The album "Girl Problems" was released on Spotify, and Majors had played live shows in the city with her band.

Majors' grandfather described the young students as "a lovely, lovely girl, very very smart and sweet," in an interview with the New York Daily News.

"The close-knit community at Barnard College is in shock right now. We’ve lost a young woman full of potential in a senseless act of violence," de Blasio said in a statement. "I want every student and every member of faculty to know your city will be with you in the days ahead."

De Blasio announced Thursday that the NYPD will increase deployment within Morningside Park and at other locations near Columbia University and Barnard College campuses. Police officials also said that the department has been working to increase patrols in the park in recent months due to an increase in major crimes.

The increase in policing led to arrests in a robber pattern within the park, but unfortunately was not able to prevent Wednesday's murder, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said. The commissioner asked people who have been in the park in recent days to call the NYPD if they noticed anything suspicious.

During Thursday's press conference de Blasio rejected the premise that New York City is "going back" to levels of crime that plagued the city decades ago despite an increase in murders this year.

"Even with this very troubling increase, number of murders is so much smaller than it was even a decade ago and that's a good thing. But we know we have a problem we must address head on," de Blasio said.