13-Year-Old Fatally Stabbed on New York City Bus. A 14-Year-Old is Accused of Murdering Him

Syles Ular died Friday, stabbed multiple times, including through the chest by a 14-year-old, police say

Red, white and blue candles curved into an S outside of the slain teens Staten Island, N.Y., apartment building over the weekend, after Syles Ular, 13, was stabbed in the chest on a city bus in what police described as a “possibly gang-related” incident Friday afternoon.

A 14-year-old boy – who has not been identified because of his age – has been arrested and charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the stabbing, police confirmed to PEOPLE.

Syles was already sitting on the bus, when the 14-year-old boarded “and they started yelling at each other,” a teenager on the bus later recalled to CBS News.

Syles and the 14-year-old threw gang signs “back and forth” NYPD Patrol Chief John Chell said at a press conference Friday.

Then, the 14-year-old “walked over, pulled a knife out of his pocket, grabbed him and started stabbing him,” the teenage witness told CBS News, adding that the two boys wrestled, and the older teen “just kept stabbing him and stabbing him.”

“‘Help, someone call the cops, I can't breathe,’” the teenage witness recalled Syles pleading, per CBS News.

Struggling to the front of the bus, the 13-year-old crumpled beside the bus operator, ABC7 reported.

The driver was “visibly broken up,” Demetrius Crichlow, senior vice president of New York City Transit Department of Subways said at Friday’s press conference, noting that the driver had tried to keep passengers calm while calling for emergency assistance.

The older teenager fled the bus, making it the distance of about three blocks before he was stopped by a retired NYPD sergeant who happened to be nearby, Chell said, adding that another “good samaritan” and a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officer aided in identifying the suspect.

Syles had “multiple stab wounds about the body” police tell PEOPLE. Officers rushed him to Staten Island University South Campus, where he was pronounced dead. Chell called the incident a “tragic, tragic homicide.”

Both kids were middle school students, ABC7 reported.

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Police had responded to at least two other incidents involving teenagers and weapons across the city earlier that day, Chell said. A 16-year-old female student was shot walking toward a Brooklyn bus stop in what police believe to be gang-related crossfire, a bullet grazing her ankle around noon Friday.

And a little over an hour later, on 10th Avenue in midtown Manhattan, a concerned “family associate” reported that a 15-year-old student had a gun inside the building shared by Independence High School and Environmental Studies High School, Chell said. In the course of police’s search, they confiscated the student’s gun, as well as another gun and an imitation gun off of two other students.

Related: Boy, 11, Allegedly Took Mom's Gun to Shoot 2 13-Year-Olds After Fight at Football Practice

In New York, which has one of the youngest age exceptions for criminal responsibility in the country, kids as young as 13 can be charged as “juvenile offenders” — a status that enables them to be tried much like adults, although their hearings are still conducted in youth court.

The 14-year-old accused of stabbing and killing Syles was arrested and charged at 11:15 p.m. Friday, police told PEOPLE.

Syles’s cousin, Shay, described him to CBS New York as a “sweet,” kid who liked to play basketball in the park and included younger kids in the game.

Mourning the middle schooler, friends scrawled notes for Syles on posters, per CBS New York: “Forever 13!!” and “REST UP,” they read.

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