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Teen Suspect in Columbia Student's Death Arraigned

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Photograph of the memorial service held for Minghui Yu earlier this week by Daniella Zalcman on Flickr

The 14-year-old boy whose actions led to the death of a Columbia graduate student was arraigned in Family Court yesterday. An NYPD detective told the judge that Sheldon (whose last name is withheld due to his age) admitted to repeatedly punching 24-year-old Minghui Yu in the head "a couple times." But, according to Detective John Garvey, the boy also claimed "he attempted to grab Mr. Yu to keep him from going into traffic."

Last Friday, Yu had been walking home and when he stood at the Broadway median between West 122nd and 123rd Streets, where Sheldon, accompanied by two friends, assaulted him. After a struggle, Yu ran into the street and was fatally struck by a vehicle. Surveillance footage showed the suspect in the area.

Judge Jane Pearl still found there was enough to charge the boy with second-degree manslaughter; he will remain in a juvenile detention center until the next hearing on April 24. The NY Times reported Pearl told Sheldon, "whose eyes were red and swollen," "I want you to know that I will be thinking about you and wanting you to take care of yourself." The boy's mother and other relatives cried.

Yu's parents, who live in China, are expected to arrive in New York today. Columbia administrators and Senator Chuck Schumer worked with Chinese officials to expedite their visas, and school administrators and Yu's friends at the Columbia University Chinese Students and Scholars Association have been working together to plan a memorial. A memorial service is tentatively scheduled for April 17, but the CUCSSA's Junhua Shen said, "Right now everything is all preliminary because the parents have the final say."

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Comments [rss]

  • savior78

    ok, so my last paragraph was a little harsh.



    calling the above commenters racist would be like saying that it's "racist" to accuse the kkk when the members lynch or "beat up some random black dude."



    leave the kkk alone. seriously.



    ...or treat everyone with respect.



    it's up to you, or not. ;)

  • savior78

    the kid was obviously not motivated by racial differences since blacks can never be racists. they suffered too much in the american history. and everyone who's not black cursing black people is obviously racist because of all the suffering they had to endure even if they weren't born during the civil rights movement.



    whoever is picking on the little boy is a racist since the kid is black. if he were any other race, every "racist" comment would have been automatically non-racist. it's okay calling asians 'chinese'; this isn't like calling a black person a 'n*gro,' because the latter is obviously racist because it's targeted at black people. (can i get a yeah? holla?)



    oh, and the kid is from the bronx and he doesn't know what the hell is going on with the columbia expansion. and if he did know, where is the art of uh... verbal communication? forget verbal skills, what about a verbal threat? verbal anything? "yo!!! n*gga!!!"



    racism is wrong.



    beating up strangers outside your race for no reason is racism.



    most people here writing are defensive racists, acting in self-defense. to call them plain racists would be telling a jew during the holocaust that it was all jews' fault.

  • Nunyah Bidnit

    I don't think the judge was being too sympathetic in saying what she did. I mean, you didn't hear her tone of voice, did you? I pictured a stern mother figure authoritatively pointing at this kid and simply saying, "I want you to know that I will be thinking about you and wanting you to take care of yourself." In other words, "I'm not forgetting about you, young man, so you better be careful and straighten out your life." To me, it seemed like a warning -- I mean, a judge will be thinking about him. She's not letting him entertain the notion that he can get away with whatever he wants or weasel out of the charges.



    This is a 14-year old boy who likely runs wild on his own most of the time, obviously has poor judgment, and is probably stupid or doesn't have good command of the English language. What else is she going to say?

  • CaptJanks

    Got news for some of you shitheads here. Many many NYC Asians are racist towards blacks, for a damn good reason. No they're not born like that, they learn after getting victimized one or more times to avoid black kids. It's called conditioning and it's as basic as survival instincts get. Try smacking a cat around several times and see how he reacts to you or any other human around him. I invite you to let some black kids kick your ass around for a while. Guarantee the next time you see a black kid, you'll piss ur pants. So don't cry "racist" on us ok. You can thank those stupid sons-of-bitches and fatherless bastards you raise for making this possible.

  • SapphireSwell

    I am unnerved by Judge Pearl showing sympathy for a violent attacker come murderer.



    Hopefully this honorable Judge never lives to see a reckless attack on her child, but if the chance arises, I will wonder if kind words shown to the attacker comforts her in court.



    May she should think before she speaks and leave her sympathies for a private occasion.



    And yes, the relatives should cry, not because their precious juvenile delinquent is in detention, but out of shame that they could have raised such a "person." It must be a sad day when you realize that you're responsible for breeding a monster.

  • rasputinsghost



    This is a sad, sad day.



    The kid's claim that he tried to pull him back makes me want to fucking vomit. Give me a fucking break, you disgusting piece of shit. You effectively murdered someone, and now you pull this Road-to-Damascus conversion horseshit 10 seconds after you savagely attacked this innocent man? Fuck you.

  • Spear_Chucker

    I was a dumb kid once, but I never sucker punched anyone just for kicks. Only a subhuman savage would do that.

  • Spear_Chucker

    Remember that animated SNL Digital Short where Obama placed an electronic shock collar on Al Sharpton (so that Sharpton would get ZAPPED should he get too close to Obama. hahaha!)?



    Columbia should work out a deal with the city, where all the "natives" north of 123th St and east of Morning side Ave would be required to wear a shock collar. Should a "native" get restless and try to venture beyond their boundaries, they'd get a very unpleasant shock and the NYPD gets notified. This could have save this student's life.

  • dkim2015

    to be fair, those kids could have been of any race. i mean, we were all kids once and we all showboated and fronted like we were tough.

  • dkim2015

    one time i was trying to catch the 6 at grand central and i kept on getting pushed from behind. i thought it was people traffic but it happened 3-4 times a in a row so i turned around and saw it was some 12-15 year old black kids messing around. i gave them an angry look and kept walking until one of them actually threw themselves at me. i got pissed so i turned around and pushed one of them to the ground and started screaming that i'll kick their asses back into their mammas. lil' punk had this look in his eyes like, why did you do that?! you got to show these wannabe thugs that you will fight back and hopefully next time they will think twice before doing something stupid.

  • poopmast

    Putting him in jail doesnt do anything but make him a stronger, smarter criminal when he gets out.



    He needs to be neutered and get rehabilitation from Cesar Millan starting with the use of a choke collar and repeated face jabbing.

  • slappy

    Man, this is one of the most racist string of comments I have seen in quite a while here. Boring, dumbass, racist nuts. Where do they get the idea that their inferences and so transparently stupid statements deserve reply or discussion?

  • rtd2101

    "he attempted to grab Mr. Yu to keep him from going into traffic."



    What a bullshit defense. Even if this kid did grab Yu, I'm sure it was to keep the poor guy from running into traffic, rather than to pull him back to the median so he could punch him some more...

  • ihateallbrokers

    im sure his family cant wait to use a free and unrestricted Google internet search engine here in the good old usa!

  • ihateallbrokers

    maybe the MTA should hire some coolie labor for track improvements.

  • ihateallbrokers

    sheldon should get a medal! and a hero's parade down fifth avenue.



    they should shoot the family when they arrive at the airport, sell their organs, then send a one dollar invoice for the bullets, after all thats what the chinese do.

  • myl0419

    the boy also claimed "he attempted to grab Mr. Yu to keep him from going into traffic."



    uhmmm......yah, so he could keep punching Mr. Yu in the face probably.

  • ThisCharmingMan

    What happened was terrible.



    The majority of people commenting on this subject are heartless.



    Humanity is the devil.





  • zodak

    zodak, my impression is that Pearl just feels compassion for this troubled boy--she did allow the manslaughter charges to move forward.



    except he's not a troubled boy, he's a thug that caused the death of an innocent man. there are plenty of troubled boys who do need compassion. sheldon isn't one of them. she should know that.

  • djwerdna

    I wonder how the media in China or even the Chinese media in New York is portraying this.

  • Peter

    Please give the Bell Curve shit a rest.



    No, I won't.

  • Reality Czech

    Please take this 14 year old lowlife animal out and shoot him and do society a favor, thank you

  • berniegoetz

    I'm amazed the kid didn't pull the, "He called me a n****r" defense. I guess his council figured it was less likely to work after killing an Asian.

  • sakebalboa

    #13

    don't forget mansitting and pole hoggers.

  • eyekantspel

    In Jen's defense, I think this is a legitimate story. The kid is getting arraigned, and the Judge made a comment, the dead kid's parents arrive in NY today. The NY Times found it newsworthy, I'm not sure why Gothamist shouldn't.



    I've certainly questioned repeated coverage of certain things as being designed to generate posts. If you want a ton of comments, post about bicycles in the city, street art, congestion pricing or republicans. Heath Ledger also comes to mind. But I don't think the coverage of this has been over the top.

  • GOP

    Sheldon was merely protesting Columbia's expansion in Harlem. He did so by displaying the oft talked about (but never specified) "culture" that Columbia's expansion will destroy. The deep rooted history of Harlem. Mugging, wilding, robbery, drug dealing -- it's like the four elements of hiphop.

  • Spear_Chucker

    How come we haven't heard a peep from Al Sharpton about this?



    And I, for one, would love to be updated about what happens to this little savage.

  • AvenueHebrew

    Peter, we get it already. You think black people are inferior and evil. Please give the Bell Curve shit a rest.



    And for that matter, Jen, how long are you going to be milking this story for page views?

  • eyekantspel

    the boy also claimed "he attempted to grab Mr. Yu to keep him from going into traffic."



    not a thug, but a failed hero.

  • sakebalboa

    but...he tried to save him

  • Jen Chung

    zodak, my impression is that Pearl just feels compassion for this troubled boy--she did allow the manslaughter charges to move forward.

  • babyhitler

    notice how there is not a single black person at this memorial. Usually, if there is a memorial for something done wrong to a black person, you will see a huge contingent of other races gathering for support as well.

  • Peter

    The left tail of the Bell Curve in action.

  • Muscley Armed Paper Boy

    Tried to show his friends how much of a "man" he is and wound up crying like a little, whiny bitch. I hope he gets ravaged in prison.



    Sheldon's mother and relatives were crying? So are Yu's. Learn to raise your illegitimate, bastard children or just birth 'em and leave 'em in jail when you go to visit your baby daddy.

  • zodak

    Pearl told Sheldon, "whose eyes were red and swollen," "I want you to know that I will be thinking about you and wanting you to take care of yourself."



    so judge pearl is an idiot who believes that sheldon is innocent because he sheds a little crocodile tears? he's just crying that he can't beatup & kill more people who actually were doing something with their lives. shouldn't judges be smarter than that?

  • sj

    Stupid kid. Yeah, like a guy you just randomly punched in the head a few times is going to let you grab him and see what happens.

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