A 20-year-old man accused of stabbing teenage twin sisters – one fatally – outside a deli in Brooklyn turned himself in to police on Friday. A video posted to social media shows Veo Kelly being led into a police car to the sound of jeers and curse words from onlookers outraged by the crime.
“What if somebody did that to your sister?” one woman yelled as Kelly was put in the back of a police car.
Kelly is charged with the murder of Samyia Spain, 19, and with three additional counts: one for assault and two for criminal possession of a weapon, NBC News reported.
In the early morning of 17 March, Samyia and her twin sister, Sanyia, had walked to Slope Natural Plus, a store in the Park Slope neighborhood, with their brother after a family game night. While at the store, the attacker reportedly made advances toward both girls. After Samyia refused to give her phone number to the unknown man, who appeared drunk, he became irate, Sanyia told the New York Daily News.
He argued with the sisters, she said, left and then returned to the store.
“He pushed little Samyia, and then I pushed him,” Sanyia told the Post. “And then everybody else started pushing him out the door.”
The employee working at the bodega allegedly kicked the man and his associates out and locked the door behind them. Later, when the Spain sisters’ group prepared to depart, the employee unlocked the door, let them out and locked the door behind them.
The aggressor and his party, however, had not left the area. Sanyia said she saw the man and two of his group standing close by, with the attacker holding a knife.
“He had a knife in his hand and was saying: ‘I’m gonna stab y’all in the face,’” Sanyia told the Post. “I’m telling everyone to back up. And he pushed little Samyia to the ground.”
The twins’ older brother allegedly punched the attacker in the face, causing him to fall to the ground. From there, the two groups began fighting. During the altercation, Sanyia was stabbed in the arm and Samyia was stabbed in the chest and neck, and later died from her injuries.
"Say Her Name! Samiya Spain!" - Group marched from Stonewall Inn and overtook NYC Subway car to memorialize the slayed teen.
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) March 22, 2024
The 19-year-old twin sisters were attacked, only one of them survived as they got stabbed in Park Slope, as twin desperately tried to protect sister after… pic.twitter.com/95sEDhFMI9
The killing of Samyia, who was Black, prompted outcry and protest from local residents and drew attention to the risk of violence women face after rejecting the advances of men.
Although the frequency of “rejection killings” is unknown, Black women in general face a higher risk of homicide than their white counterparts, according to Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
