Barnard student stabbed to death

[Anonymous]

So sad.....

https://www.thedailybeast.com/18-year-old-barnard-college-student-stabbed-to-death-near-columbia-university

[Anonymous]

Besides telling our kids to always walk with another person, what should we be teaching them before they go college? Carry pepper spray? Would this even help in this situation?

[Anonymous]

So tragic. Shocked it happened in early evening. Nobody saw her lying on the ground for half an hour. I am sure there must be people walking near the park. Pedestrians on the sidewalk, many vehicles plying the streets. Its a busy area.

[Anonymous]

This is just awful. Morningside Park is beautiful, running right along the river just off campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is just awful. Morningside Park is beautiful, running right along the river just off campus.

That's Riverside Park. Morningside Park is between campus and Harlem, in the other direction.

[Anonymous]

Good grief, people. This seems to have happened in the very early evening on a weeknight. The student was probably going for a run. This is not the time or situation for an alcohol awareness PSA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Besides telling our kids to always walk with another person, what should we be teaching them before they go college? Carry pepper spray? Would this even help in this situation?

Teach them basic awareness & street smarts. I wouldn't walk through Morningside Park alone at any time of the day, TBH. Although the area around Columbia is tremendously safer than it used to be, it's still not safe to walk through that park alone, because it's not very busy -- basically, the perfect spot for armed robbers to hang out. That's why she wasn't found for 30 minutes, even in the early evening.

(Just to add - I know the exact stairs she was walking down. When I was at Columbia in the early 2000s, I only walked down those steps 1 time alone before becoming totally creeped out and never doing it again. I think the new development around Columbia probably makes it all seem much safer than it is.)

[Anonymous]

Visited this area before, seems fairly safe. I’m shocked this happened at 5:30 PM, which isn’t that late.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So tragic. Shocked it happened in early evening. Nobody saw her lying on the ground for half an hour. I am sure there must be people walking near the park. Pedestrians on the sidewalk, many vehicles plying the streets. Its a busy area.

Very few people walk through the park after dark, most walk around it and the area where the cut through to 116th Street is can be pretty isolated even during the day, if that's where it happened. Steep stairs leading down into the park with no streets or traffic nearby. So very tragic and such a senseless crime. I hope there are cameras in and around the park and they catch the perpetrators. How horrible for the family, I can't imagine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Visited this area before, seems fairly safe. I’m shocked this happened at 5:30 PM, which isn’t that late.

What area, exactly? Some areas around Columbia are very safe. But pretty much anyone could say that the stairs down to Morningside Park are prime mugging geography. It's not all that different from DC - DC is very safe in general, but I wouldn't go walking around say Kingman Park alone at dusk.

https://nypost.com/2019/05/18/nypd-investigating-violent-child-mugger-in-morningside-park/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just awful. Morningside Park is beautiful, running right along the river just off campus.

That's Riverside Park. Morningside Park is between campus and Harlem, in the other direction.

Ah, you’re right, sorry.

[Anonymous]

She was a freshman from St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville. She may have been naive about the dangers of NYC. So, so sad.

[Anonymous]

As a parent of a student on Morningside Heights, I can't begin to imagine the pain that her family must be suffering now.

When tragedy strikes, it's pretty natural for people to block the sadness of losing such a promising life. But, it's really just small-hearted to blame an entire community (Harlem) or suggest that the student should have known better than to go into Morningside Park. It might make it easier for you, but is it so hard to imagine how hurtful that would be to someone close to the victim?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So tragic. Shocked it happened in early evening. Nobody saw her lying on the ground for half an hour. I am sure there must be people walking near the park. Pedestrians on the sidewalk, many vehicles plying the streets. Its a busy area.

That's the part that troubles me...no one saw her in a busy area? Or is it just that no one bothered to stop? Upsetting to say the least. I'm also skeptical that the security guard was "on rounds."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a student on Morningside Heights, I can't begin to imagine the pain that her family must be suffering now.

When tragedy strikes, it's pretty natural for people to block the sadness of losing such a promising life. But, it's really just small-hearted to blame an entire community (Harlem) or suggest that the student should have known better than to go into Morningside Park. It might make it easier for you, but is it so hard to imagine how hurtful that would be to someone close to the victim?

jfk. save it. nobody blamed Harlem, and yes, people should not walk down the 116th St stairs alone, at any time of day.