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A teenage girl was stabbed to death outside a New York City Bodega after a man who tried to make advances to her and her twin sister rejected him.
Samyia Spain, 19, died from stab wounds to the chest and neck, and her twin sister Sanyia was hospitalized with wounds to her arm after they were set upon outside Slope Natural Plus on Fourth Avenue at 2.20am on Sunday.
The teenage girls had been enjoying a night out with friends when a man outside the bodega had expressed his interest in the women – which they declined.
‘She was a very good person,’ one friend of Samyia’s told The NY Post.
‘She was in school, she was working. She was very lovable. She didn’t start any trouble. All she wanted to do was have fun.’
Samyia Spain (pictured) was enjoying a night out with her twin sister Sanyia when she was fatally attacked at a bodega in her native Brooklyn
The store in Park Slope was the scene of another notorious murder just three years ago when Latisha Bell, 38, shot dead her girlfriend of 20 years, Nichelle Thomas, 52, in broad daylight
The pair are thought to have been in the same club as their attacker and an accomplice earlier in the evening before they were followed to the store, which was heaving with late-night revelers.
‘One of the guys had complimented the two girls who walked in with their friends. They said no, they weren’t attracted,’ a witness told News12.
The men became angry and were kicked out by staff who locked the door on them, he added.
‘The second they reopened the door, he ran back into the door and started attacking them.
‘Everybody started tending to her. One of her friends took off their shirts and started putting compression on her neck to try to slow down the bleeding. She was gushing blood just all over the street.’
Both women were taken to New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital where Samyia was declared dead and her sister called their grandfather Alphonso Goodson, 66.
‘She says, ‘Granddaddy, Samyia got stabbed and she died,’ Goodson told the Daily News.
‘I couldn’t believe it. When I got the call, I came as soon as I could. We’re all taking it very hard.
Both women were taken to New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital where Samyia was declared dead and her sister remains in a stable condition
A knife was pictured in a cordoned off area of the bloodstained street in the aftermath
‘My daughter, she’s taking it pretty hard. We never expect nothing like this to happen.
‘He walked in and started hitting on her,’ he added.
‘She said, ‘I don’t want to be bothered with you. Leave me alone.’ Then the storeowner put him out.
‘He started kicking on the door, he started banging on the door.
‘I don’t know if they called the police, but at that time [the storeowner] should have called. And then when they left the store, that’s when he attacked them.
‘He was waiting for them. He took it the wrong way. He came after them. That was wrong. That was dead wrong. I hope they catch this guy.’
The store was the scene of another brutal murder in 2021 when Latisha Bell, 38, shot dead her on-off girlfriend of 20 years, Nichelle Thomas, 52, in broad daylight.
Bell was convicted of murder last month and is in jail awaiting sentencing.
Police have appealed for help finding Sunday’s killer who was wearing a ski-mask according to witnesses and fled after the attack leaving a knife on the bloodstained street.
Samyia had started working at Walgreens after returning to Brooklyn with her sister from North Carolina.
A friend described Samyia as ‘very lovable’. ‘She didn’t start any trouble. All she wanted to do was have fun’ they added
‘They wanted to come back to the city because this is what they know,’ Goodson said. ‘It was too quiet down there.’
Samyia wrote on social media about getting a tattoo shortly before setting off on her night off, and posted her last message at 9.23pm on Saturday: ‘My friends looking for me in the club but I’m drunk making new friends.’
Deli worker Mohammed Albher said the twins were regular customers at the store.
‘They used to come every day,’ he added, ‘They come, shake my hand. Say, how are you?
‘I don’t want to see nobody hurt — nobody, nobody, she’s a nice girl.’
A friend of the twins said they did not know their attacker before he struck.
‘It was some random person, it’s surprising, very surprising. It was a kitchen knife,’ they added.
‘You know who I blame? The government, for the simple fact, y’all cut all these mental health off, and now look who’s running out here.
‘Those are the people that don’t get in trouble. There are a thousand cameras and there is no arrest.’
