A 14-year-old has been arrested and charged with murder following the fatal stabbing of a young teenager on an MTA bus on Friday, according to reports.
The NYPD identified Syles Ular as the 13-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed with a knife in a dispute that began on an MTA bus in Eltingville on Friday afternoon.
A 14-year-old boy has been charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the horrific slaying that occurred on Friday on Hylan Boulevard between Littlefield Avenue and Groton Street, according to a statement from the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.
Officers responded at about 2:23 p.m. to the scene where they saw Ular suffering from multiple stab wounds and transported him to Staten Island University Hospital in Prince’s Bay where he was pronounced dead, according to the police statement.
The knife has not been recovered as of Saturday morning, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
“He was the sweetest kid,” the Daily News quoted Ular’s aunt, Ladrina Sheffield, 45, as saying. “His life should not have been taken this way. This as just senseless. I can’t believe my baby is gone.”
The fatal encounter began with a confrontation between at least two males, Ular and the 14-year-old suspect, in what appeared to be a gang-motivated assault on a MTA bus, Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a press briefing held Friday evening at One Police Plaza, Manhattan.
As the argument escalated, Chell said that “a knife is produced and gang signs were being shown back and forth. We have a male stabbed in the chest. Our perpetrator flees this bus.”
Witnesses saw Ular’s motionless body lying on the street in front of the bus as emergency responders rushed to the scene.
Chell said the suspect ran about three blocks before witnesses — a “Good Samaritan” described as a retired sergeant for the NYPD, an off-duty New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officer, and a third bystander — apprehended him.
“Three independent people were on-scene helping,” Chell said.
“The retired sergeant started to follow the male who did the stabbing. At this time, another witness points him out as the one who just stabbed somebody and the sergeant affects the arrest,” Chell said. “Again, tragic, tragic homicide. We believe this motive is gang-related. Quick response and great response from our community.”
Dozens of police vehicles and numerous NYPD officers and detectives swarmed the normally quiet, safe neighborhood.
Officers from the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit could be seen looking under cars, checking wooded areas, lifting grates to check sewers as they apparently searched for the murder weapon.
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