‘STAB ALL THE GIRLS’
Karina suspect made threats to girls as teen
Chanel Lewis, the 20-year-old suspect in the murder of Karina Vet ra no, hate d t he girls in high school and told an aide when he was 15, “What if I bring a knife to school? I want to stab all the girls.”
The 20-year-old man who confessed to murdering Queens jogger Karina Vetrano once admitted to a teacher’s aide in high school that he wanted to knife his female classmates, police sources told The Post on Monday.
“I want to stab all the girls,’’ Chanel Lewis told the worker on May 17, 2011, according to sources.
Lewis, then 15, also asked the aide at the HS for Medical Professions in Brooklyn, “What would happen if I bring a knife to school?” according to the sources.
Officials at the Canarsie school called cops, and Lewis was taken into custody as an “emotionally disturbed person,” evaluated at Kings County Hospital and released, sources said.
The next month, school officials called police again when Lewis “cursed at a female student and threatened both her and her family,” law-enforcement sources said.
Lewis was once more taken to the hospital and released.
By that point, he had been diag- nosed with paranoid schizophrenia, according to sources.
Lewis transferred to Martin De Porres HS in Rockaway Park, Queens, a private school for students with emotional and behavioral issues, in September 2011.
There, he was known as a loner who was bullied daily, including by girls, former schoolmates said.
“Kids would hit him all the time,” a current student told The Post. “The girls would even bully him and punch him. He didn’t have any friends.”
Another said, “Sometimes he fought back, but not much.”
Elias Gabriel, 18, who rode the bus with Lewis at the school, said, “I know a lot of people made fun of him, for the way he dressed and the way he looked. They called him an African lizard. He would kind of smirk and walk away.”
The students said they were shocked that Lewis was charged in the Aug. 2 murder of Vetrano, who was killed while jogging on a path in Spring Creek Park.
“No one knew him to be violent or belligerent,” Gabriel said. “He used to walk around school with his hoodie on all the time.”
After hearing of his arrest, “I was like, ‘Chanel? Quiet Chanel?’ I was surprised,’’ Gabriel said.
Another student, Danielle Muniz, 17, described Chanel as a “smart kid” with good grades.
“He liked showing me funny videos on the bus about people making jokes,” she recalled. “He was never violent here.”
Dr. Edward Dana, executive director of the Martin De Porres Schools, said that Lewis graduated in August 2015 and that there were no reports of him making threats at the high school.
“During his time at the school, there is no disciplinary record against him, nor are there any reports that he made threatening statements against other students,” Dana said in a statement.
Lewis, of East New York, Brooklyn, told police he had been hanging out along in Spring Creek Park to calm down after having a fight with his family, law-enforcement sources said.
He was “startled” by Vetrano and took his anger out on her, he told cops, according to sources.
“When I saw her, I just hit her and kept hitting her. I hit her and choked her,” he told police, according to sources.
Lewis’ DNA, obtained after he submitted a swab, was matched to traces found under Vetrano’s nails, on her back and on her backpack.
“We have a strong [DNA] profile on him,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Monday.
Asked about Lewis’ mental state, Boyce refused to comment.
Vetrano was found with her pants pulled partway down, but Lewis didn’t admit to sexually assaulting her, sources have said.
He is being held in the Manhattan Detention Complex, where he was put into protective custody “because of the high-profile nature of the case,” a source said.
“He’s not isolated. He’s with other [protective custody] inmates,” a source explained.
Lewis, now charged with second-degree murder, had no prior criminal record, officials said.
His next court date is Feb. 21.