Family of slain Barnard student blast police union head, marijuana remarks

Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins seemed to blame 18-year-old Tessa Majors in her death on a Sunday radio interview

Basing his understanding of Major’s murder last week in Morningside Park on drugs –  “she was in the park to buy marijuana,” Mullins said

“The remarks Ed Mullins we find deeply inappropriate, as they intentionally or unintentionally direct blame onto Tessa, a young woman, for her own murder,” the victims family said

Freshman Barnard College student Tessa Majors was stabbed to death in Morningside Park near 116th Street in Manhattan

A 13-year-old boy has been questioned and released, a 16-year-old is being sought for the stabbing, while charges
against a 14-year-old were dropped Saturday

NY Mayor Bill de Blasio observed in a tweet Sunday evening calling Mullins’ remarks “heartless.”

NY police union boss has angered murder victim, Tessa Majors’ family and the establishment in New York, by attributing her death to a quest for drugs

The family of slain Barnard student Tessa Majors on Monday blasted the police union leader who linked her murder in a New York area park,  to an attempt to buy marijuana.
The family of Majors, an 18-year-old college freshman, said in a statement. “We would ask Mr. Mullins not to engage in such irresponsible public speculation, just as the NYPD asked our family not to comment as it conducts the investigation.”
The outspoken Mullins, whose adversarial relationship with New York city Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD leadership and is well documented, stirred more controversy when he said in a Sunday radio interview that based on his understanding of Major’s murder last week in Morningside Park “she was in the park to buy marijuana.”
“And you think about that, we don’t enforce marijuana laws anymore. We’re basically hands-off on the enforcement of marijuana,” Mullins said. “So here we have a student murdered by a 13-year-old and we have a common denominator of marijuana. You know, my question to the people of New York City is, ‘Why is this happening?’”

Police Union leader, Ed Mullins, [photo], stirred controversy when he said in a Sunday radio interview that based on his understanding of Tessa Major’s murder last week in Morningside Park, in Manhattan, NY on the belief that the college student “was in the park to buy marijuana”

Barnard student Tessa Majors’ murder becomes a political football as police union chief claims she was murdered while trying to buy weed.
The NYPD has not said why Majors was in the park. A 13-year-old has been arrested and admitted he was at the scene with two other teens. One, 14, was arrested, then let go while authorities build a stronger case against him. The other, 16, is believed to be the stabber but has not yet been arrested.
The mayor in a tweet Sunday evening called Mullins’ remarks “heartless.”
“It’s infuriating,” he added. “We don’t shame victims in this city.”
Mullins, after reading the family’s statement, said his comments “were never directed at the victim, but rather de Blasio.”
“I can’t imagine what [the family is] going through,” Mullins added.
Majors’ family thanked those, including thousands of strangers, who have expressed their condolences, and the statement also said the family “is interested in knowing what exactly happened to Tess and who committed her murder.”
“We believe, for the immediate safety of the community and the surrounding schools, that should be everyone’s top priority and we are grateful to the men and women of the NYPD for all of their efforts,” the statement said.

Barnard student Tessa Majors’ murder becomes the latest spark plug in New York politics as police union chief Ed Mullins claims she was murdered during a drug buy

“We don’t shame victims in this city.” New York city Mayor Bill de Blasio [photo], in a tweet Sunday evening called Mullins’ remarks “heartless.” “It’s infuriating,” de Blasio said

Murder victim Tessa Majors’ memory became a political football Sunday, with the leader of a police union shaming the slain Barnard College student to make a point about what he views as lax enforcement of marijuana laws.
“An 18-year-old college student at one of the most prestigious universities is murdered in a park, and what I’m understanding, she was in the park to buy marijuana,” Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins said on businessman John Catsimatidis’ Sunday morning radio show.
“And you think about that, we don’t enforce marijuana laws anymore. We’re basically hands-off on the enforcement of marijuana,” Mullins said.
“So here we have a student murdered by a 13-year-old and we have a common denominator of marijuana. You know, my question to the people of New York City is, ‘Why is this happening?’”.
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Roosevelt Davis, [center], the uncle of a 13-year-old suspect in the killing of Tessa Majors bows his head while leaving a hearing at family court in Manhattan, NYC on Dec. 13, 2019

Police have refused to comment on rumors that Majors was in the park to buy pot when she was slain, though the NYPD has not officially said why she was there. Majors’ boyfriend told police she was in the park for a jog, a law enforcement source told the Daily News last week.
The 13-year-old charged as a juvenile in the case is not believed by police to have stabbed Majors dead, as Mullins implied.
The youth told cops that he and two friends decided to rob Majors when they saw her jogging down the steps of Morningside Park last Wednesday, according to testimony at a court hearing last week.

Several defense attorneys and criminal justice reform advocates also blasted Mullins on Twitter.
“The NYPD is weaponizing Tessa Major’s murder to attack reductions in marijuana enforcement & the prospect of legalization. Never fails. They use every tragedy to push their cynical agenda of more criminalization & greater harshness,” public defender Scott Hechinger wrote Sunday night.
“The fear mongering argument also makes no sense. Assuming it’s even true that she was trying to buy marijuana in a park when killed, legalization would have prevented the need to go to a park,” he added. “She would have been able to buy from a licensed dispensary. With surveillance footage.”
At a vigil near the murder scene in Morningside Park on Sunday night, mourners demanded that politics take a back seat to Major’s memory.
“Don’t make it political!” several people yelled, as City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez spoke about how the Columbia University campus — which is shared by Barnard College students — was surrounded by poverty.


“There’s a 13-year-old who is thinking about killing someone. How? How someone reach that age and having those thoughts? We have failed. We have to turn responsibility,” Rodriguez said, drawing cries of “No political values!” and “This is a vigil!”
State Sen. Brian Benjamin took the microphone from Rodriguez as the shouts continued. “This was about acknowledging Tess, so we apologize,” Benjamin said. “We will stay on message. We will stay on message.”
Barnard graduate Darcy Cassidy, 26, who joined the nearly 500 people in attendance, said the vigil needed to be about more than politics.
“I would also like for there to be room for just grieving,” Cassidy said. “I think there should be space for both — for thinking about how we’ve created as a city circumstances where kids — where young children are so desperate that they resort to violence.”

Freshman Barnard College student Tessa Majors [photo], was stabbed to death in Morningside Park near 116th Street in Manhattan on Dec 18

Shaquoya Carr, [second right, in red shirt], the aunt of the 13-year-old boy accused of complicity in the fatal stabbing of Tessa Majors, arrives at family court on Friday in New York

One of the 13-year-old’s two friends is believed to have stabbed her dead, police sources have said.suspect in custody in the case as of Sunday night. Charges against a 14-year-old cops questioned in the case were voided early Saturday.
A third teen suspect is still not in custody. Sources believe the actual killer is a 16-year-old boy now hunted by police.
The 13-year-old suspect, whose name is being withheld because of his age, was the only suspect held so far in the case.
Mullins’ remarks drew condemnation from Mayor de Blasio later Sunday.
“Think of Tessa’s parents, her friends. This is heartless. It’s infuriating,” de Blasio wrote on Twitter. “We don’t shame victims in this city.”