MURDER HIGH
Cops: Bullied student, 18, stabs & kills 15-year-old, hurts another in Bronx class
Abel Cedeno (top, in police custody) fatally stabbed Matthew McCree (left) and wounded a second classmate Wednesday in their problem-plagued Bronx school, police said. Cedeno was later charged with murder.
THE TAUNTING began on the first day of high school and Abel Cedeno couldn’t hold his rage another second.
The bullied student, armed with a $30 switchblade, stabbed one of his tormentors to death and savagely gashed a second teen as a Wednesday morning history class turned into a Bronx bloodbath, police said.
Horrified classmates howled in disbelief as Cedeno flew into a homicidal fury, plunging the serrated stainless steel blade into the chests of Matthew McCree, 15, and Ariane Laboy, 16.
Cedeno just “went crazy,” said witness Jomarlyn Colon, 16. “Everybody just stood back. A few of them were holding Matthew. A few of them were holding towels on the wound. “All the kids were crying and screaming.” McCree, who started the deadly confrontation by flicking a pencil at Cedeno, was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital after the 10:50 a.m. stabbing spree in a fifthfloor classroom, cops said.
Laboy was in critical condition at the same hospital after he was attacked while coming to McCree’s defense.
Cedeno was charged with murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
As cops escorted him out of the 48th Precinct stationhouse Wednesday night, he mouthed “yes” when reporters asked if he had been bullied.
The killing at the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation was the first inside a city school since February 1993.
The school is not equipped with metal detectors that could have alerted authorities to the knife, said sources with knowledge of the incident.
Colon said students were unable to hold the enraged Cedeno back as the 18-year-old student yanked the knife — reportedly purchased via Amazon — from his shirt pocket.
A source indicated the recovered blade was “very illegal” and not for sale in New York State.
Cedeno told detectives that the two stabbed teens were “harassing him for a while,” and sources said the bullying of the typically low-key victim began when school opened on Sept. 7.
“He’s a good kid,” said Norma Perez, 69, a surrogate grandmother for the teen. “I don’t know what happened this morning. I just know he’s not like that.”
Iris Couvertier, 55, a family friend, said Cedeno’s victims constantly picked on him, calling him names and beating him.
“He didn’t mean to do this. I know Abel, he would’ve never done something like this, never,” she said. “It just really took a toll on him and he lost it today. He snapped.”
The third-period class was about 30 minutes old when Cedeno stood up to leave the room — and McCree tossed his pencil at the older boy, cops said.
Though the projectile missed Cedeno, he turned to face McCree. The younger student immediately stepped up to confront him, setting off the violent attack, cops said. NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said the killing marked the brutal culmination of an ongoing feud. “We believe this argument has been going on for about two weeks into the school year and it escalated,” said Boyce. “A fight erupted today after some back and forth.” Cedeno walked out of the class and freely surrendered the spring action knife with a 3-inch blade to a school counselor, Boyce said. He then sat quietly in the assistant principal’s office, waiting for police to arrive at the West Farms school. Though the students were in different grades, they were all enrolled in the elective history class.
Cedeno had no prior arrests and no gang affiliations, according to cops. Perez said Cedeno’s mom was stuck in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
“She must be really worried,” said Perez. “She’s stuck there because of the storm.”
Sharon Borden, who lives near the school, described the chaotic scene outside as first responders rushed to aid the blood-spattered victims.
“The second kid, they was rushing him out on a stretcher,” said Borden, 55. “I was like ‘Move, get away!’ It was scary, that was somebody’s child stabbed up. “I watch these kids every day. I can’t believe it.” The slain McCree’s parents and his brother rushed to the Bronx hospital, only to learn the teen was already dead, sources said. The terrified parents of other students descended on the building at Mohegan Ave. near E. 179th St., demanding officials shut down the classrooms and release the kids. Rita Taylor, 23, the mother of a 5-year-old girl stuck inside the school, screamed and spewed obscenities as she watched the kids through the classroom windows.
“They’re f------ scared!” she screamed. “How about you let the f------ kids out? I’m not going to calm down! My daughter is in there crying! I know my child!”
Mayor de Blasio called the killing a “painful, painful tragedy for the families.”
“This is something every parent every morning worries about — the safety of their child,” the mayor said. “And at this moment we have one child’s life was lost, one child fighting for his life, and another child, the one who committed this action, whose life will be destroyed by this action.
“We will do all we can to support them and the community, which is reeling right now from this incident,” de Blasio said.
More school safety officers and random scanners will be brought to the school for the start
of classes Thursday, the mayor said.
As students were slowly led out of the building that also holds Public School 67, Chief Joanne Jaffe of the NYPD Community Affairs Division told parents that students who witnessed the killing were still inside the classroom with their teacher.
“We want to get help for the kids in the classroom with their teacher,” she said. “We are trying to get support services in there and we are trying to get help for the other children in the school.”
The city Department of Education said the teacher, whom it declined to name, was unable to stop the attack. Officials, citing federal privacy laws, also would not say if the school was aware of any beef between Cedeno and McCree.
The death comes amid ongoing criticism of de Blasio’s handling of safety issues in public schools.
De Blasio campaigned for office on a promise to overhaul and reduce the city’s use of scanners in schools. He has yet to implement systemic change in how they are used, although he’s resisted calls to expand their number.
The mayor has claimed school violence is down, but state statistics contradict him — and show serious incidents in the public schools are on the rise.
Law enforcement officials, high-ranking educators and other critics say de Blasio has instituted a number of policies that make it harder for arrests and suspensions to take place at schools.
New York City Parents Union president Mona Davids said the mayor had blood on his hands for Wednesday’s death.
“I blame de Blasio. He’s responsible for it,” said Davids. “He wants to remove most of the scanners from schools. And he made it just about impossible for principals to suspend students.”
The stabbings marked the first crime to take place this school year, police said.
During the 2016-2017 school year, cops investigated one robbery and two assaults at the school. Four incidents of cell phone and computer equipment thefts also occurred, cops said.
The last school building murder dates to February 1993, when 15-year-old Angel Jimenez was stabbed to death in a Manhattan high school over a pair of glasses.