A 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death on a Manhattan subway platform on Saturday afternoon, police say.
The teen has been identified as Ethan Reyes, a resident of Yonkers. According to the New York City Police Department, Reyes was involved in an argument with the suspected killer just before he was knifed in the abdomen.
On Sunday, police arrested a 15-year-old suspect, charging him with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, FOX 5 reported.
The tragedy unfolded at the 137th Street/City College subway station just after 3 p.m., when sources cited by the New York Post said a brawl erupted among a group of teens.
Reyes was taken to a local hospital but was pronounced dead there. Photos from the scene published by the news outlet showed blood stains still visible on the walls of the staircase leading out of the station. PIX11 reported that police collected a knife and a broomstick from the crime scene.
“This senseless and tragic incident is awful. We are cooperating with the NYPD investigation that remains in its early stages,” MTA Transit President Richard Davey said in a statement cited by ABC New York.
A local vendor told the Post she had “heard people screaming” as first responders arrived to try and help the mortally wounded teen.
“It’s devastating, bro. This never should’ve happened. It’s sad. The kid was growing up and had so much to look forward to,” a 15-year-old boy who said he knew the victim told the Post.
Around the same time as the horrific broad-daylight stabbing, Mayor Eric Adams and top NYPD officials were touting an expansion of the city’s Saturday Night Lights program, a recreational initiative for youngsters that Adams on Saturday said “is about giving young people another choice and keeping our city safe when crimes are most likely to be committed.”
At a livestreamed event in the Bronx to highlight the program, he said the stabbing just proves that the city needs “safe spaces for our young people.”
Adam last month announced the NYPD had started sending cops out on solo patrol in the subway system to cover more ground—over the objections of the police union.
