Funeral For Brooklyn Woman Who May Be Alleged Victim Of Child Stabbing Suspect
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A funeral is being held for a Brooklyn woman who may be the alleged victim of a suspect charged with stabbing a 6-year-old boy to death and seriously injuring another child inside an elevator in East New York.
Services will be held Wednesday for 18-year-old Tanaya Copeland.
Copeland, a nursing student at Long Island University, was found with multiple stab wounds to the torso on Stanley Avenue last month, police said.
The attack happened just a few blocks away from where police said 6-year-old Prince Joshua "P.J." Avitto was killed and 7-year-old Mikayla Capers was critically injured at the Boulevard Houses two days later.
The suspect in that case, 27-year-old Daniel St. Hubert, was indicted Wednesday for murder and other charges, authorities said.
Investigators are looking at St. Hubert as a suspect in Copland's death, CBS 2's Janelle Burrell reported. A similar knife was found at the scene of Copeland's slaying, police said.
"You destroyed our lives, that's basically it," Copeland's mother, Rochelle Copeland said. "You destroyed our lives."
St. Hubert is also a suspect in the subway stabbing of a homeless man last week on the southbound No. 1 train platform at 18th Street in Chelsea, police said.
Police spokesman Stephen Davis said St. Hubert was seen on surveillance video near the subway station where the attack occurred and witnesses said a man who looked like St. Hubert was seen on the subway platform.
St. Hubert has not yet been formally charged in those two cases. Police said investigators are still testing forensic evidence.
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