A 15-year-old girl was arrested for fatally stabbing Emery Mizell, 17, in the courtyard of a Bronx building, police announced Friday.
The teen suspect, whose name is being withheld by police due to her age, was charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon for the killing of Mizell Thursday afternoon, cops said.
With her arraignment pending, the arrested teen was taken to a hospital Friday, according to Bronx prosecutors, with details not immediately clear.
A 911 call Thursday evening led officers to discover Mizell suffering from a stab wound to her chest inside the courtyard of a Boynton Ave. residential building near Watson Ave. in Soundview around 2:15 p.m., according to law enforcement.
Mizell was seen surrounded by a group of 10 youths moments before she was fatally stabbed. The teen mob fled into the building, leaving the victim to bleed to death, according to one neighbor.
“I thought they were playing.” said witness Jerry White, 61. “They were just kids. Then people were running back and forth getting tissues to stop the bleeding.”
A good Samaritan building tenant recounted to the News Mizell’s last moments as he tried desperately to stem the bleeding from her fatal wound.
“She was on the floor just bleeding out. She was on her back,” said the 46-year-old tenant, who declined to give his name. “I just held her wound.”
“The knife was on the floor. It was a kitchen knife,” said the man. “You know when you have a set of knives and you’ve got one little one? That’s the one.”
The man said Mizell stopped breathing before first responders arrived.
“I seen that she passed away. You could tell,” the neighbor said.
Medics rushed Mizell to Jacobi Medical Center, where she was officially pronounced dead.
The building superintendent identified her attacker as a resident of the building.
“[The attacker] came out of the building, and the other girl came from outside,” super Armando De La Cruz told the Daily News on Thursday. “They started fighting, and one of them pulled a knife and stabbed the other.”
The suspect’s foster mother, who asked her name not be used, recounted how the teen ran into her apartment in tears in the wake of Thursday’s fatal assault.
“She ran upstairs crying,” said the foster mom. “She said, ‘Something bad happened.’”
The woman said her foster child had been feuding online with the victim before the stabbing.
“She’s always scared and threatened,” Dee said. “I knew something happened.” Instagram, Facebook all the girls are all arguing.”
Emery attended a school housed in the nearby James Monroe High School and was set to graduate in June, according to her grieving father.
“She was a beautiful child, just a beautiful child,” Tony Mizell said of his daughter.
A group of about 25 gathered Friday outside the building near a makeshift memorial for Mizell. A friend of the teen who did not want to give her name said Mizell was a reliable friend who wrote rap music and could often be seen walking her dog in the neighborhood.
“[She was] sweet. She put everyone before herself. She cared about her siblings,” the 22-year-old woman said of Mizell. “She was really misunderstood and she just wanted to be loved and accepted. She was really misunderstood.”
“She was very pretty. Very smart. That’s what a lot of people envied about her,” the friend said. “She was always there for her friends.”
