An 18-year-old Bernard College student was walking in a park near the campus when two unknown attackers attempted a robbery gone wrong. You know, casual, right? 

Tessa Majors was a first year college student from Virginia, who was interested in journalism (kudos) and was in a rockin’ band. 

Majors was stabbed several times, with what is still unknown, however the New York Times reported, ”A folding knife with a blade roughly four inches long was found nearby and was being tested for DNA and fingerprints, a law enforcement official said.” 

There are three suspects total, two of which have been found. The two suspects, which have been arrested by local police, are 13 and 14 years old. 13 and 14 — at that age I was obsessing over Harry Potter, just saying.

One of the suspects, 13 year old Zyairr Davis, went in front of a judge on Dec. 13, and the detectives said that one of Majors’ assailants pulled a knife and stabbed her several times. The group fled and Ms. Majors staggered up a flight of stairs, out of the park and onto the street, where a campus security guard found her. She was pronounced dead at the hospital. 

Davis is being charged as a juvenile delinquent in Family Court, not a criminal court because of this age. That’s good, right?

Davis told Detective Signoretti, which later the detective used the information to testify, that he watched his two friends grab the student, put her into a chokehold and remove items from her pockets. Before 7 p.m., the boy watched as his friend slashed the young woman with a knife and feathers from the stuffing of her coat came flying out. 

Davis was arrested, and the 14-year-old was detained and interviewed on Dec. 13 as well. The next day, the 14-year-old boy was released based on lack of evidence, according to the New York Post. 

The third suspect was allegedly supposed to surrender on Dec. 16, but fled on the way to the police station, according to an article by the New York Post.

Davis has denied the accusation that he took part in the stabbing of Majors, but admitted in taking part of the robbery. It is believed that the third suspect, whose name is unknown, was the one who stabbed Majors in the park.

On top of this, investigators are led to believe Majors was in the park that night to buy marijuana. This has caused an uproar of controversy, for the cops at the New York Police Department (NYPD). On Dec. 15, Ed Mullins, the head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, an association within the NYPD, discussed a theory. 

According to Mullins, Majors’ death could be blamed on weed and criminal justice reform. Mullins even went as far to say that one of the three boys also smoked weed and stabbed her to death, and with that it’s the “common denominator.” Ok boomer.

Bills passed throughout 2019 that decriminalized marijuana, so implying that marijuana, and Majors herself, were the cause of an 18 year old college student’s death is outrageous. 

Following Mullins bold comments, Major’s family spoke out about what he said, “The remarks by Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins we find deeply inappropriate, as they intentionally or unintentionally direct blame onto Tess, a young woman, for her own murder.”

This whole situation is messed up. This girl was living her best life and then it ended just like that. The fact that kids THAT young, 13 and 14 years old, are capable of doing something like this just blows my mind. 

I don’t know if it’s just because I’m old or I’m just used to adults doing stuff like this, but this particular news story really put me in a weird place. These three boys are five years younger than me. FIVE. 

Majors and I are the same age. We’re both freshman at a university and we’re both aspiring journalists. The mere fact that this type of story isn’t surprising anymore is alarming.