Emery Mizell, a 17-year-old student at New York’s Metropolitan Soundview High School, had been looking forward to prom and high school graduation. All that changed when a dispute with another teenage girl ended with Emery being stabbed to death after walking home from school in the Bronx on May 2.
“I’m devastated, I’m numb, I’m in disbelief,” her father, Tony Mizell, told The New York Times. adding, “My daughter was a beautiful soul.” According to Emery’s family, she and her alleged attacker went to the same high school, but the family didn’t have information on their relationship.
Police, however, uncovered an ongoing dispute between the teens on social media. Emery had been bombarded with harassment and taunts before the fatal attack.
Emery had left school minutes before when she was stabbed in the chest multiple times around 2:30 p.m., with as many as ten teens watching on, some of whom were interviewed as witnesses and later released, according to reporting by ABC7.
The attack happened at the entrance to an apartment building where Emery and the suspect reportedly both lived. The entire incident was captured on surveillance video, which is now under review by the police. ABC7 reported that “with so much blood on the ground, the victim had very little chance and was declared dead at the hospital.”
Her alleged assailant, who is 15, reportedly ran into the apartment building but was quickly taken into custody and charged with murder, manslaughter, and unlawful possession of a weapon, according to police. Her name was not released because she is a minor.
“They shouldn’t be fighting because somebody said this about that person. It’s stupid stuff. It’s not worth taking somebody’s life,” said Emery’s second cousin Latayna Mizell, who posted a moving tribute to Emery on her Facebook page.
“I’d do anything for the chance to hug you and tell you I love you again. Sleep in peace our sweet angel,” she wrote.
Mizell’s three younger siblings are struggling to cope with the tragedy, and their words at her memorial on May 4 were heartbreaking.
Emery’s 13-year-old sister, Gianna, told the New York Post that she always turned to her big sis for advice. “She was there for me when no one was there all the time.”
“She was a good girl. I love her. I want her to come back,” 8-year-old Toni said. Meanwhile, Emery’s 6-year-old brother Josiah stated, “She was good. Strong. I miss her so much. I want to tell her that, ‘I love you, please be safe, and I love you so much.’”
In the aftermath of the slaying, her father could not fathom why anyone would want to kill his daughter, calling the attack “senseless” and “ignorant.”
While the rate of homicides nationwide has dropped over the past two decades since peaking in 2021, the rate of violent death among youth is skyrocketing, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed.
The youth suicide rate is up nearly 60 percent in over twenty years, and the youth homicide rate is up nearly 20 percent within the same time frame. Evidence suggests social media plays a large part. Taunts that were once forgotten now live on and reach large audiences, fueling feuds and sometimes ending in deadly consequences.
