Sought for questioning
Linked to argument that led to slaying of a SUNY student
NYPD detectives have identified a man wanted in connection with the murder of 18-year-old college freshman Denzel Bimpey in the Flatiron District, police said Saturday.
Thierno Bah, 18, is sought for questioning in the Dec. 15 slaying of Bimpey, who was mistaken as a rival gang member before he was chased down and knifed to death as he returned home from SUNY Morrisville for Christmas break, cops said.
Police released a photo of Bah on Saturday, asking anyone who sees him to call NYPD Crime Stoppers.
Bah has no criminal history in New York City, but was identified as being linked to an argument on a bus from Syracuse to the City that Bimpey was involved in before the stabbing.
Bimpey and his friends had just ended the five-hour ride when they clashed with another group of college students.
“While they’re in Syracuse, the two groups are involved in a verbal dispute where the perpetrator group starts talking some gang language asking our victim’s group, ‘What block are you from?’ and they respond, ‘We’re not in a gang,’ ” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a press briefing last week.
Cops said the victim and his friends had no prior arrests and did not appear to be in a gang. Bimpey and his friends were from the Bronx. The other group was from Harlem.
“There is a gang up there called Six Block that is feuding with Nine Block,” Kenny said of the Harlem feud. “We believe that our victim group may have been mistaken as Nine Block members.”
The argument did not turn violent until the group got off the bus in the Flatiron District shortly after 10:30 p.m., officials said.
Bimpey and his friends ran down the block with the other college kids in pursuit, according to Kenny. When the 18-year-old collapsed on Park Ave. South, the other group stopped chasing him, ran to a black SUV and took off.
The college freshman had a pulse on the scene, where cops found a knife and box cutter type of weapon, Kenny said. He had puncture wounds to his chest that were 7 to 8 inches deep, a puncture wound in his right shoulder and a slash to his forearm.
He died of his wounds at Bellevue Hospital.
Kenny said cops did a deep dive on social media and determined that the group that attacked Bimpey and his friends went to Onondaga Community College, about 10 minutes from SUNY Morrisville, where Bimpey was a student. Both groups got on the bus in Syracuse at the same time, he said
“This is a common transportation hub where students catch buses, the buses stop along the way coming down south,” he noted.
Officials at an upstate school identified Bah as a suspect in Bimpey’s death, but the NYPD wouldn’t say which school alerted them to his involvement. No arrests have been made. Bimpey’s family insisted that he was a clean-cut college kid.
“He wasn’t in any gang,” a woman who identified herself at Bimpey’s sister said Tuesday. “We don’t live in Harlem.”
Anyone with information regarding Bah’s whereabouts was urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.