A second teen has been arrested for fatally stabbing a 17-year-old migrant in lower Manhattan last year during an ongoing gang beef, police said Thursday.
The new suspect, also 17, was nabbed Wednesday and charged with murder and gang assault for the Dec. 5 stabbing of Yeremi Colino outside of City Hall Park, officials said.
A 16-year-old was arrested three weeks after the killing. The names of the suspects have not been released by the NYPD because they are underage.
Within 24 hours of the slaying, the NYPD released surveillance images of the three suspects they were looking for. The murder is believed to be gang related.
Yeremi was walking with a group when he was stabbed during a brawl on John St. near Nassau St.
NYPD Assistant Chief Jason Savino said the fight was sparked by an ongoing beef between migrant crews. The 1-minute brawl started after the three suspects flashed gang signs, which prompted the victim’s group to confront the trio, officials said.
The clash was between Los Diablos de la 42 (Devils of 42nd St.) and an Afro-Caribbean group, cops said.
According to Savino, the two groups knew each other prior to the lower Manhattan clash. A knife with a brown handle, two wooden sticks and a pair of pliers were recovered at the scene.
“Both sides both had weapons. The victim actually swings an unknown object in a downward motion just prior to being stabbed by one of the perpetrators,” Savino said during a press conference following the stabbing.
Yeremi, who was living at the Roosevelt Hotel, a Midtown migrant shelter, was stabbed in the chest.
An employee at a nearby Walgreens pulled the wounded teen to safety inside the store and called 911. EMS rushed the teen to Bellevue Hospital, where he later died.
Alan Magalles Bello, 18 who was with Colino, was stabbed in the left arm and was taken in stable condition to Bellevue Hospital, where he received five stitches.
“I was with my friend yesterday. A group of people show up, like a gang, and they pull out a knife towards me and my friend,” Magalles Bello told ABC7 NY at the time.
At least one more suspect is still being sought for the killing, cops said.
