NEW YORK—A teenager was pronounced dead on arrival at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital after being stabbed outside Joseph Wade Middle School in the Bronx Wednesday.
Timothy Crumb, 14, was stabbed at least twice in the torso according to one of the boy’s classmates, who did not want to give her name.
According to the eyewitness, Timothy was stabbed by his classmate, Noel Esteves, also 14, after the two fought. Noel is now in police custody.
Eyewitnesses said that Timothy had been sitting on a car after school at about 3 p.m. waiting for Noel to come out. According to the eighth-grade eyewitness who didn’t want to be identified, Timothy “was the main fighter in the school” and was waiting to fight Noel.
The two fought and Noel had Timothy bent over and kicked him in the head, causing his nose to bleed. Another student attempted to break up the fight, splitting the boys apart. That’s when Noel pulled out the knife, the eyewitness said.
“He stabbed him right here,” the student said, indicating her upper chest and then her midriff. Timothy tried to run away, but dropped to the ground from his injuries and started seizing, she said.
Six youths with knives then went looking for Noel for revenge, but the boy had gone back into the school.
Pushed to the Edge
Marisoo Perez, a family friend, said that Noel had returned to school only one day earlier after spending two weeks of clinical treatment for depression. Perez, who was outside the school late Wednesday, said the depression was caused by intensive and prolonged bullying.
The classmate described Noel, the boy who allegedly stabbed Timothy, as a gentle 14-year-old boy who was pushed to the edge by bullying. She said Noel was intellectually challenged and had mental health issues.
“He has the mind of a 7-year-old,” Perez said. “He tried to kill himself two weeks ago. He’s not a bad kid.”
Perez has known Noel and his family for eight years.
Noel had stopped going to school for three months, and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia while being treated for depression at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. His depression came from being bullied in school, Perez said.
“The kids used to come and knock on his house door. They‘d try to kick the door down. They’d pee in front of the house door,” she said.
The warning signs were there, according to Perez’s daughter, Marie Arroyo.
“He was telling everybody, ‘I’m getting bullied!’” Arroyo said.
Filiberto Jimenez, Arroyo’s husband, said that the bullying has been going on for some time and that a police report has been filed.
Timothy lived in the same building as Noel. The boy’s neighbor Tyrone Rivers said that the boy “was never a bully.”
“He used to tell me his thoughts, how he was fed up with how everyone is trying to act like tough guys around here,” Rivers said.
