Second teen arrested in Tessa Majors murder named as Rashaun Weaver
Cops have arrested the teen they are “confident” is the monster who viciously stabbed Barnard College student Tessa Majors to death during a botched robbery in Morningside Park, officials announced Saturday.
Rashaun Weaver, 14, was busted in the lobby of the Taft Houses in Brooklyn at 10:30 p.m. Friday night — and will be tried as an adult on two counts of murder, NYPD brass and the Manhattan district attorney’s office said at a noon presser at police headquarters in lower Manhattan.
“What we can do is say that we are confident that we have the person in custody who stabbed her,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said. “And that person will face justice in a court of law.”
Shea continued: “Sadly, [this] cannot bring back this young woman. That is something even the best, most impartial investigation simply cannot do.”
The arrest comes months after suspect Zyairr Davis, 13, was nabbed days after the fatal mugging on charges of felony murder.
Majors, 18, was stabbed inside the Harlem park in December when a trio of attackers cornered her, authorities said.
The group tried to rob the budding musician, who struggled with her assailants until one of them stabbed her multiple times, sources have said.
“The allegations are really laid out in heartbreaking detail. The complaint paints a picture of video evidence, blood evidence, smartphone evidence, iCloud evidence, the witness identification, and the defendants’ own statements that were rigourously collections and examined prior to this indictment,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.
During the mugging, a witness heard a male voice say, “Gimme your phone. You got some weed, gimme that too,” the criminal complaints alleges.
Weaver confessed to police that Majors’ was “hanging onto her phone” during the struggle, according to court records.
That’s when he “hit” her with the knife, Weaver told cops.
The witness then heard Majors scream, “Help me, I’m being robbed!”—her last known words, Vance said.
Prosecutors at Weaver’s Saturday morning bail hearing also tied Weaver to DNA recovered from underneath Majors’ fingernails as she clawed and scratched at her assaillants.
A grand jury has been in sesstion for three weeks reviewing evidence against the two teens in the robbery gone wrong—including a knife believed to be the murder weapon, law enforcement sources said.
Weaver is also charged with four counts of robbery, authorities said.
“He’s a 14 year old child and he’s presumed not guilty,” his lawyer, Elsie Chandler, told The Post outside court.
Weaver was held without bail and will be held at a juvenile detention facility until his next court date on Feb. 19.
“This arrest is major milestone on the path to justice for Tessa Majors,” Vance said. “And our journey to reach that milestone today was not a sprint, but rather it was a painstaking deliberate and meticulous search for the truth.”
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