Stabbing Victim Tessa Majors' Family Speaks Out For First Time Since Key Suspect Escapes
Dec. 18 2019, Updated 2:17 p.m. ET
The family of 18-year-old Barnard student Tessa Majors is speaking out for the first time since the suspect accused of stabbing her to death escaped.
In an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com, Majors' grandfather, A.M. Burton, said that hearing about the alleged killer’s escape doesn't change the fact that his granddaughter is gone.
"It doesn't make much of a difference. We are still just stunned and hurting," Burton admitted. "It doesn't bring Tessa back."
Burton went on to criticize the New York Police Union Department head Ed Mullins for allegedly victim-shaming Majors after her murder by saying she was in the park to buy marijuana when she was attacked.
"What I’m understanding, she was in the park to buy marijuana," Mullins said on businessman John Catsimatidis’ Sunday morning radio show. “And you think about that, we don’t enforce marijuana laws anymore. We’re basically hands-off on the enforcement of marijuana.”
Burton, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, admitted the entire situation has been heartbreaking.
"We don't live in Virginia, certainly not in New York. So we can't speak to the police down there but it is quite upsetting that they are trying to spin stories," Burton said. "We pray that the truth will come out and we will just leave those people alone who want to make up those stories."
This isn't the first time the family has expressed concern over how the NYPD has handled the investigation into Majors' murder.
“The remarks by Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins we find deeply inappropriate, as they intentionally or unintentionally direct blame onto Tess, a young woman, for her own murder," Majors‘ parents said in a statement. “We would ask Mr. Mullins not to engage in such irresponsible public speculation, just as the NYPD asked our family not to comment as it conducts the investigation.”
As RadarOnline.com readers know, a 14-year-old suspect, whose name police have not released, bolted from his lawyer’s car on Monday, December 18, as he was being driven to a New York police station for questioning.
As of now, the suspect remains at large, though a manhunt is underway.
A second suspect has also been charged in the case, though the 13-year-old's legal team claims he was not involved in the stabbing, and only witnessed the attack.
The New York Medical examiner ruled that Major died from stab wounds to the torso following the brutal robbery and stabbing at Morningside Park.