‘BULLIED INTO SLAY’
‘Years of slurs’ before school stab
The Bronx teen who allegedly killed a bully in the middle of history class was mercilessly tormented with homophobic slurs for years, a family friend claimed on Thursday as the youth was held without bail on murder charges.
“As far as I know, these students have been calling him f----t and s--c, so it’s sexual orientation and race,” said family rep Savannah Hornback outside the Bronx courtroom where Abel Cedeno was arraigned on Thursday.
Judge Patsy Gouldbourne ordered a psychiatric evaluation and put Cedeno on suicide watch at the request of his attorney, Deborah Rush. He is being held without bail at Rikers Island.
Assistant District Attorney Nancy Borko said the teen “admits to purchasing a knife two weeks before online and stabbing two people.”
The bloodshed happened on Wednesday morning in a fifthfloor classroom at the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation.
Witnesses said Cedeno became enraged at Matthew McCree, 15, and Ariane LaBoy, 16, for repeatedly hitting him with broken pencils.
He pulled out a switchblade and stabbed McCree in the chest, killing him, authorities said. He then turned the knife on LaBoy, who tried to help his friend.
Supporters stood as Cedeno en- tered the courtroom. He briefly glanced at them before hanging his head.
Inside, his only words were, “Yes, I understand, your honor,” when asked if he understood the charges against him, which include murder and manslaughter.
Hornback said Cedeno was specifically and repeatedly bullied by McCree and LaBoy in the weeks before the stabbings.
She said he had been a victim of “extreme bullying” at several different schools over his “perceived sexual orientation.”
But the NYPD on Thursday insisted Cedeno told detectives that the teens he stabbed had not bullied him.
“Basically, he said that it was the first time he had a problem with those two individuals . . . He was being harassed by other students but not these two until yesterday,” Chief of Police Robert Boyce said.
A day earlier, however, Boyce told reporters, “This argument — this thing has been going on for maybe two weeks into the school.”
Hornback, who works for the Bronx Community Pride Center, said that she had known Cedeno for about 10 years and that he told her about the trouble he had with McCree and LaBoy.
“That was not the first time they had the interaction — this has been ongoing,” she said.
“We are no way trying to lessen what Abel did. Abel was wrong,” she added.
Hornback also claimed Cedeno’s mother had reported the bullying to the school.
The city Department of Education would not confirm that, citing student privacy, but a DOE spokesperson said it is part of its investigation.
The bullying continued Thursday on Facebook, as several users who identified themselves as McCree’s friends blasted Cedeno by harping on his sexuality and wishing him harm in jail, where he awaits trial.
McCree’s stepfather said on Thursday that the slain boy was not a bully or a homophobe.
“Matthew was not like that at all, and they’re making it look like Matthew did not like gay people. That’s wrong, too,” he said.
LaBoy is “doing better” but “he’s gonna have his bad days,” said a friend visiting him while he recovers from a stab wound to the chest and several slashes at St. Barnabas Hospital.
LaBoy and his family couldn’t be reached for comment.
McCree’s slaying was the first homicide of a student inside a public school in nearly 25 years.
Cedeno is due back in court Oct. 3.