Teen murder charge in Bronx kid-stab
A TEEN was arrested Monday for the fatal stabbing of a peer who witnesses said died saving his younger brother from bullies.
Mohammed Fadika, 16, was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the death of Alijay Morgan, also 16. He was arraigned Monday night at Bronx Criminal Court.
Ann Matthews, Fadika’s lawyer, argued her client has been accused of a crime he didn’t commit.
“The defendant is 16. He is not the person who stabbed the victim. The perpetrator is still at large,” said Matthews, an attorney with Bronx Defenders.
She added that cops interrogated Fadika without a lawyer present, and also asked Judge Phaedra Perry to preserve surveillance video that would prove Fadika’s innocence.
Morgan was found at W. 181st St. and Grand Ave. in University Heights on Saturday with two stab wounds to the chest, police said.
His brother, Jamar, said Morgan leaped in when he saw the taunting teens.
“My brother was protecting me from some kid that hit me out of nowhere,” the 13-year-old told The News on Sunday.
Their mother, Patricia Gay, 34, who was working at Cipriani’s Catering in Manhattan at the time of the incident, said her younger son is now “traumatized.”
“They started tussling playfully. Then it got serious,” she said. “Before you know it, some grown man came up to another kid holding a knife, said, ‘What are you doing with that?’ and took it from him and stabbed my son in his heart.
“(Jamar) witnessed the whole thing,” she added. “He was blaming himself. I told him it’s not his fault.”
Morgan died at St. Barnabas Hospital, before his mother arrived.
Fadika was remanded an will appear back in court May 4.