A high school student at Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation in the Bronx stabbed two of his classmates yesterday (September 27) after what police say was a two-week feud between the three teenagers.
DNAInfo New York is reporting that 18-year-old Abel Cedeno attacked Matthew McCree, 15, and another 16-year-old student with a three-inch switchblade resulting in the death of McCree and critically injuring the 16-year-old.
Abel Cedeno had been subjected to racial and homophobic taunts such as “sp*c” and f*ggot” for so long that his family claims they contacted a school guidance counselor to notify them of the “extreme bullying.”
Though it isn’t clear whether the family contacted Urban Assembly or another school where he was also being bullied, they do believe that Urban Assembly was aware of Cedeno’s bullying but did nothing to help him. Unfortunately, Cedeno himself never reported the bullying to school administrators, further making it easy for him to be targeted.
According to NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce, the morning of the incident the two victims had been throwing pencils at Cedeno when he pulled out his knife and stabbed them both in the chest.
McCree was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital while the 16-year-old suffered life-threatening injuries but has since been in stable condition.
Facebook/Matthew McCree
After stabbing both teens, the bullied teen handed the murder weapon to a counselor in the hallway before making his way to the assistant principal’s office to wait for police.
Cedeno has since been charged with murder, attempted murder, and a few other charges.
A friend of Cedeno painted him as an everyday kid who was simply snapped from the constant bullying.
“He likes Nicki Minaj. He’d wear stuff from H&M. He likes Kylie Jenner, that sort of stuff. He would be in the hallways. They would bother him in the hallways, talk crap to him,” said Asia Jones, 18, a friend of Cedeno.
“He usually gets bullied a lot,” Jones added.
So much so that Cedena purchased a switchblade on Amazon and sent his friends videos of himself flicking open the knife saying “Why do you n*ggas think I’m a p*ssy?”
McCree’s family have come to his defense and rebutted any notion that Matthew was a troublemaker.
“They’re trying to make it seem like he didn’t like gay people. That’s wrong,” said McCree’s stepfather, Kyle Victor, 34.
“You need to ask the right questions first, before they paint people, making it look like some mean person,” Victor added.
McCree was a playful, loving teen, his stepfather said.
Pray for today’s youth and try to show them a better way, y’all.
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Photo: Instagram/Abel Cedeno
