A teenage identical twin has died after being stabbed outside a New York bodega by an attacker who tried to make advances toward her.
Samyia Spain, 19, died from stab wounds to the chest and neck, and her twin sister Sanyia was hospitalized with arm injuries after being attacked outside Slope Natural Plus on Fourth Avenue at 2:20 a.m. Sunday.
The twins were partying with friends when they went to the grocery store early in the morning. They rejected the attacker’s romantic advances before he stabbed them both, witnesses said.
“He had a knife in his hand and he was saying, ‘I’m going to stab you in the face,'” Sanyia said, heartbroken. Daily News after his release from the hospital.
“I tell everyone to back off. And he pushed little Samyia to the ground.
Samyia Spain was enjoying a night out with her identical twin sister Sanyia when she was fatally attacked at a bodega in her native Brooklyn.
The Park Slope store was the scene of another notorious murder just three years ago when Latisha Bell, 38, fatally shot her 20-year-old girlfriend, Nichelle Thomas, 52, in broad daylight.
Both women were taken to Methodist-Presbyterian Hospital in New York where Samyia was pronounced dead and her sister remains in stable condition.
The two men are believed to have been at the same club as their attacker and accomplice earlier in the evening before being followed to the store full of late-night revelers.
While they were waiting to be served, a friend told Sanyia that a man was talking to her sister.
“I grabbed his phone and said, ‘Come with me, come with me,'” Sanyia said.
“I said to myself, ‘Why are you talking to this boy?’ » She said, “I don’t want to talk to that boy.” »
Sanyia said her sister refused to give her her phone number but instead gave her her Instagram account.
“She said she wasn’t going to follow him,” Sanyia said. ‘That’s it. She said no.’
Moments later, the mood turned ugly when the man returned to the store.
“He pushed little Samyia, then I pushed him,” Sanyia said, “And then everyone started pushing him towards the door.”
A knifeman was photographed in a cordoned off area of the bloodied street shortly after.
The men became angry and were kicked out by the manager who locked the door on them, she added.
“When we finished waiting for our food, he let us out of the store,” Sanyia said. “After letting us out of the store, he had locked the door behind us.
When they saw the stalker armed with a knife and waiting outside with two of his friends, the twins’ brother intervened and a fight broke out.
“As I was going to grab (Samyia’s phone), he stabbed me in the 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 pass out,’ as soon as she said I was about to pass out, I called 911.”
Another witness said chaos erupted when the extent of Samyia’s injuries became apparent.
“Everyone started looking after her,” he said.
“One of her friends took off their shirts and started applying compression to her neck to try to slow the bleeding. She was squirting blood all over the street.
Both women were taken to Methodist-Presbyterian Hospital in New York where Samyia was pronounced dead and her sister called their grandfather Alphonso Goodson, 66.
“She said, ‘Grandpa, Samyia was 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.
A friend described Samyia as “very adorable”. “She didn’t cause any trouble. All she wanted to do was have fun,” they added
“We all take it very badly. My daughter, she takes it quite badly. We never expect such a thing to happen. He came in and started hitting on her,” he added.
“She said, ‘I don’t want to bother with you.’ Leave me alone.’ Then the shopkeeper kicked him out.
“He started kicking the door, he started banging on the door.
“I don’t know if they called the police, but at that point (the store owner) should have called. And then when they left the store, that’s when he attacked them.
“He was waiting for them.
“He took it badly. He came after them. It was wrong. It was completely false. I hope they catch this guy.
The store was the scene of another brutal murder in 2021 when Latisha Bell, 38, fatally shot her 20-year-old casual girlfriend, Nichelle Thomas, 52, in broad daylight.
Bell was convicted of murder last month and is in prison awaiting sentencing.
Police have appealed for help to find Sunday’s killer, who witnesses said wore a ski mask and fled after the attack, leaving a knife in the bloodied street.
“He was a very good person,” a friend told the NY Post. “She was at school, she was working. She was very kind. She didn’t cause any problems. All she wanted to do was have fun.
Samyia had started working at Walgreens after returning to Brooklyn with her sister from North Carolina.
“They wanted to come back to town because that’s what they know,” Goodson said. “It was too quiet there.”
Samyia wrote on social media that she got the tattoo shortly before leaving for her evening off and posted her last message on Saturday at 9:23 p.m.: “My friends are looking for me in the club but I’m drunk from making myself new friends.”
Mohammed Albher, a deli employee, said the twins were regular customers at the store.
“Before, they came every day,” he added. “They come to shake my hand. Say, how are you? I don’t want to see anyone hurt – no one, no one, she’s a good girl.
A friend of the twins said they did not know their attacker before he struck. “It was a random person, it’s surprising, very surprising. It was a kitchen knife,” they added.
“You know who I blame? The government, for the simple act of cutting out all these mental health issues, and now look who’s running away here.
“These are the people who don’t get into trouble. There are a thousand cameras and there are no arrests.