NEW YORK — Nine days after a Barnard student was killed during a mugging in a park, New York City police Friday were carrying out an extensive manhunt for a 14-year-old boy who detectives believed may have been the one who stabbed her with a knife.
On Friday night, in an unusual move, police distributed a photo of the wanted teenager on social media and asked the public for help in finding him. Minutes later, an official police Twitter account said the teenager was wanted in connection with the stabbing in Morningside Park.The distribution of the photograph was a measure of the difficulty investigators have faced in locating the teenager, whom they identified early on in the investigation but whose whereabouts is still a mystery.
Story continuesOne reason for the massive response was that the crime evoked another horrific attack in Central Park in April 1989, when a female jogger was raped and brutally assaulted. In that case, five teenagers — known as the Central Park Five — were wrongfully convicted based on false confessions, and the fallout has rippled through the criminal justice system.
The 13-year-old who was arrested last week told detectives that he and two middle school classmates went to the park on the evening of Dec. 11 determined to rob people, police said. Initially, the teens followed a man walking on some steps, but the boys soon abandoned their plan to mug him.