A woman was killed and her twin sister was wounded after they were both stabbed outside of a Brooklyn deli over the weekend for rejecting a man’s advances, police say.
Investigators revealed that Samyia Spain and Sanyia Spain, both 19, were attacked by a man after visiting the Slope Natural Plus bodega in Brooklyn just after 2 a.m. on Sunday. Samyia was killed in the attack.
The twins went to the deli with their older brother to get a late-night snack after taking a break from a family game night. As they were walking, someone pointed out that a man the sisters met earlier that night at a local club was following Samyia, according to the New York Post.
“I grabbed her phone, and I was like, ‘Come with me, come with me,’” Sanyia told the Daily News as she described the run-up to the fatal encounter. “I was like, ‘Why are you talking to that boy?’ She said, ‘I don’t want to talk to that boy.’”
Samyia didn’t want to give the man her phone number, so she gave him her Instagram handle. He followed her, but when she didn’t follow him back, the man got upset.
“She said she wasn’t going to follow him back,” Sanyia recounted to the Daily News. “That’s it. She said no.”
He started arguing with the sisters inside the bodega before leaving. Then he came back with his friends, but the women and their brother pushed him back out with the help of a store employee who locked the door behind them.
After the sisters purchased their snack, they left the deli and found the man waiting outside for them, armed with a knife.
“He had a knife in his hand and was saying, ‘I’m gonna stab y’all in the face,’” Sanyia recounted. “I’m telling everyone to back up. And he pushed little Samyia to the ground.”
The man charged at Samyia with the knife, but the twins’ older brother stepped in and punched the man. The encounter escalated into a full fight.
“As I was going to grab [Samyia’s phone], he stabbed me in my arm,” Sanyia said. “Samyia then asked him to give her the phone back, and he stabbed her in the neck. She said, ‘I’m about to faint.’ “As soon as she said ‘I’m about to faint,’ I called 911.”
Sanyia suffered a stab wound to the arm, but her sister was stabbed in the neck and chest. Both twins were rushed to New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where Samyia died. Sanyia was treated for her injuries before being released.
Both sisters were born in Brooklyn and spent time in North Carolina before moving back to New York, the Daily News reported.
Police haven’t made any arrests yet in Samyia’s murder. Police were searching for two men, one with a ski mask, on Sunday night, but no other details were released.
