NEW YORK — A 14-year-old boy suspected of fatally stabbing a Barnard College freshman has been released from police custody mere hours after investigators said he had been located and taken into custody following a two-week manhunt.
Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison tweeted Thursday that finding the suspect “was a significant development in the investigative process,” but that he had since been released to the custody of his lawyers.
Harrison didn’t say why the boy was released.
He is one of three youths police believe were involved in the stabbing of 18-year-old Tessa Majors on Dec. 11 at Morningside Park.
New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said in a tweet on Thursday that the boy located after being wanted for questioning.
The 14-year-old, whose name was not released, was found in the Bronx, according to a law enforcement official. He does have legal representation.
Majors, 18, was walking in Manhattan’s Morningside Park near Barnard College on December 11 when she was attacked, Harrison said at a news conference last week.
A 13-year-old boy from Manhattan was arrested a day after the stabbing. The teen was charged with second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.
Last week in court, NYPD Detective Wilfredo Acevedo testified that the 13-year-old boy told him he went to the park with two other people with the intention of robbing someone.
The teen said that at some point before the attack, one of the other two people dropped a knife on the ground and he picked it up and handed it back to them, Acevedo said.
The trio initially followed a man but targeted Majors, who refused to give up her property, Acevedo testified.
The detective said surveillance video does not show the 13-year-old stabbing Majors or taking her property.
An attorney for the teen argued his client was not aware that a robbery would be taking place.
A second teen, who police found and questioned, was taken into custody but later released, law enforcement officials have said.
