Vic’s grieving fam relieved, but in agony
A young woman was charged Wednesday with murder in the stabbing of a mom of two toddlers during a bloody brawl in the suspect’s Washington Heights home — violence that stunned the heartbroken family of the 20-year-old victim.
Kayla Armand, 20, repeatedly slashed Fateema Boston after she showed up at Armand’s apartment on W. 163rd St. near Amsterdam Ave. at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, cops said. Medics arrived to find Boston bleeding and unconscious and rushed her to Harlem Hospital, but she couldn’t be saved.
Boston’s relatives on Wednesday struggled to come to terms with her brutal death.
“I was the last one to see her. It was Aug. 8. She came here to get her mail because her mail comes here,” Boston’s devastated 13-year-old sister, Destiny Wynne, said from the family’s Upper West Side home.
“She was like my twin. She was goofy, she was a funny person. She would stick up for me anytime someone was bullying me outside. She didn’t always make the right choices, but she did fix them sometimes.”
The family said they knew little about the circumstances of Boston’s death except that she and Armand had once been friends. Armand had even stayed over at the family’s apartment at least once in the past.
Destiny described Armand as “not a good friend” to her sister.
Boston’s older sister, Kiara Floyd, 21, recalled a period as a teen living in a group home on First Ave. with both Boston and Armand. “Kayla got kicked out because she was fighting everybody,” Floyd said. “She wasn’t fit for the place … I never knew her as a good person. She was always in trouble. Her kids got taken away.”
A friend of Armand, however, told reporters that Boston was allegedly sent to Armand’s home in a recently constructed seven-floor apartment building that caters to the formerly homeless by Armand’s exgirlfriend.
The two recently ended things after the ex-girlfriend cheated on Armand, who booted her out of the apartment as part of the break up, Armand’s close friend Evelyn Figueroa told the Daily News.
“(Armand) was in her house watching television and minding her own business. Her ex called some girls over to fight her,” Figueroa said. “Kayla asked (Boston) to leave several times.”
“She was defending Figueroa insisted.
Boston’s aunt, Tanama Brown, 43, disputed that her niece could have been the aggressor. “She absolutely murdered my niece,” she alleged. “She stabbed her repeatedly like she was trying to prove a point … I do not believe that was self-defense, not at all.”
Boston lived in a Queens domestic violence shelter where she fled after beatings from a boyfriend. Her sons by that man, ages 2 and 3, were in the custody of Administration herself,” for Children’s Services, but were set to be returned Wednesday. In 2011, she was acknowledged in a citywide ceremony for valedictorians and salutatorians attended by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Boston turned 20 on June 15, right around the time she was hired to work for FedEx. Brown said Boston was trying do to her best for her sons.
“It wasn’t easy, but she always looked on the bright side,” the aunt said.
The fatal stabbing, for the grieving family, also recalled the murder of a cousin, Vincent Woods, who was stabbed to death in Astoria in 2003.
Police took Armand into custody at the scene. On Wednesday, cops announced they’d charged her with murder, assault and weapons possession. Her arraignment was pending in Manhattan Criminal Courts.
Neighbors in Washington Heights said Armand had a violent streak and this past winter, a gun was fired from inside her apartment, wounding someone on the street.