Teen fatally stabbed near Queens McDonald's
SUNNYSIDE, Queens (WABC) -- A person is in custody after a 14-year-old was killed in Sunnyside, Queens.
Police have charged another 14-year-old with first-degree gang assault.
The victim, who has been identified as Julian Coniell of South Jamaica, was stabbed in his abdomen near a McDonald's on the corner of Queens Boulevard and 38th Street.
Police say the deadly stabbing happened around 3:30 p.m. Friday.
His family can't grasp the fact that their son will never return home. His mother, Julie Verona tells Eyewitness News that Friday started off as a normal day.
"He took a bath and he told me to give him money -- he got a little girlfriend," said Verona.
A few hours later, Verona got a call saying her son was absent from school. Later in the day Coniell did not pick up his siblings from school -- something he always did. And then she got the devastating call from police.
"Im very sad that I was not able to help him," Verona says.
An argument escalated at the McDonald's, and Coniell was stabbed in the stomach.
He was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical condition, where he later died.
Verona says she does not know why her son was at the McDonald's -- his family says the teen was beat up by kids last January and had transferred schools twice for safety reasons. They had hoped this would be enough to keep him out of harm's way.
"He was not a statistic, and he was not someone that was just going to fall into the crack," said his aunt, Sheila Corniell.
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