Police Seek 18-Year-Old Man After Teen Girl Is Fatally Stabbed in Harlem

Police investigators were seeking an 18-year-old man after a 16-year-old girl was found with a fatal stab wound to her neck inside an apartment building in Harlem just after 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, the police said.

The victim, identified as Saniyah Lawrence, was found by police officers responding to a 911 call about an attack inside an apartment on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, according to the police. She was taken to NYC Health & Hospitals/Harlem where she was pronounced dead.

No arrests have been made in the case, but the police said the 18-year-old man, who is believed to be Saniyah’s boyfriend, was being sought in connection to the killing. The police said that her stabbing followed an argument.

Saniyah’s killing comes amid a decline in murders and shootings across the city and in the 32nd Precinct, which covers the area of Harlem where the stabbing occurred. The precinct recorded seven murders this year through Dec. 4, a 56 percent drop from 16 recorded during the same period last year.

The death is among several high-profile killings of and by teenagers this year.

At the beginning of December, Prince Shabazz, 14, was fatally shot outside of an apartment building in the Fordham Heights section of the Bronx. And in October, Jayjon Burnett, 15, was fatally shot in a subway car in Queens during an argument between two groups of people. Keyondre Russell, 18, was arrested in connection to Jayjon’s death the day after the shooting.