The NYPD on Friday released photos of a fresh-faced fugitive wanted in connection to the murder of Barnard College freshman Tessa Majors.
The boy pictured in the selfies is the third suspect in Majors’ killing in Manhattan’s Morningside Park on Dec. 11, said NYPD Assistant Chief Thomas Conforti.
Law enforcement sources said the 14-year-old is suspected of stabbing Majors in what has been called a botched mugging, and he remains on the loose.
Multiple sources have said he bolted out of a car and away from his mother Monday night while en route to meet with police in connection with the case.
The mom notified authorities, who descended on the area around West 125th Street to track down the boy but were unable to find him, sources said.
Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison denied that account at a Thursday press conference but said, “I’m not going to talk about that,” when asked to clarify.
Police have already arrested 13-year-old Zyairr Davis, charging him with felony murder after he purportedly admitted to a role in the robbery but denied stabbing the 18-year-old Virginia native.
Zyairr, busted the day after the slaying, allegedly told detectives that he and two middle-school buddies robbed her before one of the boys knifed her, sources said.
Another 14-year-old suspect was also detained but cut loose following several hours of questioning for lack of evidence, cops and police sources said.
Majors, a musician and aspiring journalist, was walking in the Morningside Heights park when she was grabbed, put into a chokehold and repeatedly stabbed, according to police.
A Columbia University security guard found Majors lying just outside the park at about 5:30 p.m. with stab wounds to the face, neck and arms, according to authorities.
Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, last week claimed that Majors had been in Morningside Park looking to buy marijuana.
Majors’ family has condemned the allegation as victim-blaming.
In a statement, her parents called the comments “deeply inappropriate, as they intentionally or unintentionally direct blame onto Tess, a young woman, for her own murder.”
Anyone with information in regard to the wanted boy is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
Additional reporting by Aaron Feis and Ebony Bowden