Quantcast

Columbia Student's Teen Killer Appears in Family Court

2008_04_yumem.jpgThe 14-year-old boy held for second-degree manslaughter in the death of a Columbia graduate student appeared in family court yesterday, as lawyers, police officials, and an aunt who cares for him weighed in. A judge assigned the boy, named Sheldon, lawyers and decided he would be tried as a juvenile offender in Family Court.

A city Law Department attorney told the court, "This attack was predatory in nature." The boy, named Sheldon, had punched 24-year-old Minghui Yu in the face on a Broadway median at West 122nd Street Friday night. After a struggle, Yu ran into the street and was fatally struck by a vehicle.

Sheldon, described as "teary" and "weeping" in court, is being held in a juvenile facility. While the police claimed Sheldon, who admitted he was involved with Yu's death, showed no remorse, his aunt told reporters after the hearing, "He's very sorry. He cries night by night." She blamed his friends, calling them "thugs," and said her nephew is "a very good boy. He’s not a thug. He’s a game head. He plays Xbox." According to the NY Times, a probation officer testified Sheldon was in counseling when he was younger and that he didn't get along with his mother, who lives in Florida and suffers from depression. He now lives with his aunt in the Bronx.

Columbia faculty and students held a vigil for Yu on campus yesterday. Columbia president Lee Bollinger said he spoke to Yu's father, "There is nothing you could say to the parents of a young person, or any child, to begin to make up for the sense of loss.” Senator Chuck Schumer is helping Columbia aid Yu's parents in getting their visas to come to NY expedited--Schumer said, "These parents have already suffered such a great loss and do not deserve to now be caught in a bureaucratic morass."

Photograph of the memorial for Yu by Bwog

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Comments [rss]

  • ihateallbrokers

    yeah, there are plenty of people who do not follow the thinkspeak of the MSM, funny how it always ends up that the brainless posters who cant think for themselves claim certain names are always the same person,

    in reality you dont realize that most of the rest of you should all have the same name since you get your panties in a twist if we dont follow your lead and post OMG & LOL to everything here.

  • jaja007

    Yu probably would have stolen American secrets and sold them to his red commie chinese masters. Yu seems to be a sleeper agent.

    Be very careful with the Chinese. They are not to be trusted.

    Was Yu's body examined for stolen American secrets? I suggest a thorough anal cavity search for stolen memory cards with American secrets on it.

  • jaja007

    Any man who let's a 14 year old child own him like this Yu did is not a man.

    On a side note, I heard this child was shouting "Free Tibet" before he scared Yu shitless.

  • Albert Sharpton

    #56

    You got down syndrome so bad, you probably have up left and right syndrome too.

  • Spirit of 76

    Why is anyone taking "ihateallbrokers" seriously? He's obviously a troll. In fact, I suspect he's one and the same as snoopy and/or "Albert Sharpton."

    If you think about it, it was almost inevitable for this kid. If you were named "Sheldon" and lived in Harlem, you'd do whatever you can to give yourself some street cred, including beating on people who can't fight back. Remember the lines in When Harry Met Sally:

    Harry: You did not have great sex with Sheldon.

    Sally: I did, too.

    Harry: No you didn't. Sheldon can do your income taxes. If you need a root canal, Sheldon's your man. But humpin' and bumpin' is not Sheldon's strong suit. It's the name. "Do it to me, Sheldon. You're an animal, Sheldon. Ride me, big Sheldon." It doesn't work.

  • pete

    This kid doesn't need Family Court, lock him forever, guaranteed he will reoffend. Its bred from birth and once its in their head, only death removes it. They start recruiting young.

    http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nj/press/files/pdffiles/bloo0921rel.pdf

    Winn admitted, among other things, that on

    July 25, 2002, he sought out another man, LaQuan Brooks, for “disrespecting” the Bloods because Brooks had said to other Double ii members that he was upset about the gang

    members bothering his 8-year-old son. Winn admitted that, after getting a gun, he found

    Brooks, called him into the street and shot him once in the chest amid a crowd of people,

    including Brooks’ son. Brooks died from his wounds.

    Perhaps forced sterilization is needed.

    http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/sayitloud/kane131

  • The Edge

    #51- Maybe he thought running was a better idea than curling up into a ball and crying like a little girl while all of 'em pound on him. 'Cause I'm getting the feeling you'd do the latter.

  • GOP

    DUTY OF ONE IN IMMINENT PERIL

    A person who, without negligence on his or her part, is suddenly and unexpectedly confronted with peril arising from either the actual presence of, or the appearance of, imminent danger to him or herself or to others, is not expected nor required to use the same judgment and prudence that is required in the exercise of ordinary care in calmer and more deliberate moments. His or her duty is to exercise the care that an ordinarily prudent person would exercise in the same or similar circumstances. If at that moment he or she does what appears to him or her to be the best thing to do, and if his or her choice and manner of action are the same as might have been followed by any ordinarily prudent person under the same conditions, he or she does all the law requires of him or her. This is true even though in the light of after-events, it should appear that a different course would have been better and safer.

    RESPONSIBILITY OF ONE CAUSING THE PERILOUS SITUATION

    When a situation of peril such as that described above is caused by someone's negligence, and the person in peril, acting under the impulse of fear, makes an instinctive and reasonable effort to escape and, in so doing, injures himself or herself or a third person, the negligence that caused the peril is deemed to be a cause of the injury. This is true even though it might have appeared, or after the event it may appear, from the viewpoint of another person, that the effort to escape was unwise or that the person in danger would not have been injured no one would have been injured if that effort had not been made or had been made differently.

  • eyekantspel

    okay, i don't agree with ihateallbrokers on this at all. Yu was attacked and ran from one bad situation (a senseless thug) into another (the path of a moving car). It sounds like he panicked in the face of being attacked- a response which is understandable. I would not call it stupid, just unfortunate. The guy who attacked Yu was stupid. As is posting a mean-spirited and ugly comment about someone who just died.

  • ihateallbrokers

    the guy ran into traffic on his own.

    what next people will commit suicide by train next time some loud young punk is on the same platform,

    get real, the guy caused his own death...

    if the victim pulled out a legal licensed gun he

    still would not have established the right to

    blast sheldon to hell,

    no real crime was committed except a harrasment

    (petty violation)

    or assault (3rd degree misdeamenor)

    Minghui Yu should be awarded a darwin award for

    his own stupidity.

  • eyekantspel

    Adding: because I don't know all the facts.

    If the kid was in front and his friends were behind, cutting off avenues of escape other than the street, I could probably see manslaughter charges sticking also.

  • eyekantspel

    playing with a gun that is fired and kills someone would be manslaughter. Robbing someone with a gun that accidentally goes off is felony murder. Punching a guy, who then runs away into the street and is hit by a car... I don't know. If he punched him and the punch caused the death, I would agree. If he chased him into the street, I would probably agree. Here I'm kind of on the fence.

  • PathToWisdom

    If American children were busy most of the day

    doing mandatory cleaning, like the Japanese do,

    there is no time for them to commit crime,

    no time to #uck around, and hurt people.

    American education system, to eliminate crime committed by those under 18, hell even those over 18,

    have to begin forcing children to do cleaning.

    Clean the halls, the class room, the toilets.

    All toilets, even the teacher's toilets.

    The teacher's should intentional make the toilets and bathrooms more filthy for the bad behavior children to clean.

    Fire the Janitors, and the cleaning contractors.

    Make the children do the cleaning. They will be too tired to #uck with other's lifes.

    Just have the Janitors supervise the children in cleaning. That's it.

  • PathToWisdom

    Have him do farm work in Chains.

    A better choice is send him to work

    in the crocodile/aligator cleaning

    in Snake Farm, in Texas.

    Americans don't like to clean, or work.

    Or get near dangerous animals.

    THis is the best punishment.

  • PathToWisdom

    Put him through the Chinese punishment, in China.

    Which includes

    Standing in front of many people,

    apologizing to everyone in public.

    If he refuses to apologize, send him to do farm work. No Americans wants to pull weeds and grow rice.

  • GOP

    S 125.15 Manslaughter in the second degree.

    A person is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree when:

    1. He recklessly causes the death of another person;

  • GOP

    Felony Murder, imo. A robbery that lead to a death. Felony Murder. This manslaughter shit is bull.

  • eyekantspel

    While I don't sympathize with this kid -- being raised by your aunt (with Xbox) hardly qualifies for sob story of the year -- I don't know that calling him a young killer is exactly accurate either.

    He punched a guy in the face for no reason, without provocation. The guy ran into the street to get away, was hit by a car, and died. The kid is certainly guilty of battery and probably assault, but the manslaughter charge is a little more murky. He committed a crime, causing the victim to flee, in course of flight the victim was killed. Is that enough for manslaughter to stick? I don't know.

  • sakebalboa

    #39

    LOL

  • JacqueMehoff

    don't they have HBC's for you people?

    let's deport them, too. now go steppin.

blog comments powered by Disqus

send a tip

tips@gothamist.com