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<\/p>\nNYC Teen Murder Suspect Said to Have Been Bullied with Anti-Gay Slurs<\/b><\/p>\n
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Further disturbing details have emerged in the case of the teenager who stands accused of murder<\/a> for stabbing two schoolmates, one fatally, on Wednesday morning in a Bronx high school.<\/p>\n 18-year-old Abel Cedeno is said by family friends to have been repeatedly bullied<\/a> with racist and homophobic taunts before lashing out at the perpetrators, a 15- and a 16-year-old, with a switchblade.<\/p>\n The New York\u00a0Daily News<\/em> reports:<\/a><\/p>\n Cedeno was placed under suicide watch and held without bail in the murder of 15-year-old Matthew McCree and the stabbing of a second youth as horrified students in their history class watched helplessly.<\/p>\n \u201cThe kids were calling him a f\u2014-t, calling him a s\u2013c,\u201d said [Savannah] Hornbeck, 34. \u201cAfter it had been reported numerous times and there was no reaction from the school, Abel felt (there was) no other way out.\u201d<\/p>\n A second Cedeno family friend, Iris Couvertier, said she spoke with Abel inside the 48th Precinct after his arrest.<\/p>\n \u201cThose two kids in the class, they hit him,\u201d she said. \u201cHe said that they hit him in the face. He said it\u2019s because he\u2019s gay<\/a> or bisexual<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n As cops led Cedeno out of the precinct late Wednesday, the suspect \u2014 wearing a pink T-shirt, a gray hoodie and a pensive stare \u2014 silently mouthed the word \u201cyes\u201d when asked if he was bullied.<\/p>\n He had purchased the alleged murder weapon online about two weeks before the killing, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.<\/p>\n [Ariane] Laboy remained in critical but stable condition at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. McCree was pronounced dead at the same hospital \u2014 where his mother was working at the time of the attacks, according to her husband.<\/p>\n Cedeno\u2019s own mother reportedly remains stranded in Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane Irma. The murder victim\u2019s family denies that he would have taken part in anti-gay<\/a> bullying, according to news site DNAinfo<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re trying to make it seem like he didn\u2019t like gay<\/a> people. That\u2019s wrong,\u201d said McCree\u2019s stepfather, Kyle Victor, 34.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to ask the right questions first, before they paint people, making it look like some mean person,\u201d Victor added.<\/p>\n The suspect\u2019s family extended their condolences to relatives of his victims.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been tragic for everyone that\u2019s been involved,\u201d Hornback said.<\/p>\n A CBS New York report:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The post NYC Teen Murder Suspect Said to Have Been Bullied with Anti-Gay Slurs<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n