‘Ty did this’: Man arrested after girlfriend named him as her killer with her dying breath

Shirley Rodriguez was allegedly stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend, Tyquane Jemmott, in Washington Heights on 20 May 2024 (Citizen)
Shirley Rodriguez was allegedly stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend, Tyquane Jemmott, in Washington Heights on 20 May 2024 (Citizen)

A woman who was allegedly stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend outside her Manhattan home named him as her killer in her dying breath, New York City police said.

“Ty did this,” Shirley Rodriguez, 29, uttered to her father in her final moments after she stumbled inside following the attack on Monday, said Joseph Kenny, NYPD’s chief of detectives, at a press briefing.

Tyquane Jemmott, 33, of the Bronx, was arrested in connection to the fatal stabbing. He was caught on the same day, hiding out at his uncle’s house in the Bronx, said Chief Kenny. Charges are still pending.

Chief Kenny said Rodriguez had just left her apartment building in the Washington Heights neighborhood around 5.30am on Monday to head to work when she was ambushed in the vicious one-minute attack that was caught on video. She was stabbed in her torso, back, neck, arms and face.

“She was fighting back the whole time,” the chief said.

Shirley Rodriguez was stabbed to death outside her Washington Heights apartment in New York on May 20, 2024 (Provided)
Shirley Rodriguez was stabbed to death outside her Washington Heights apartment in New York on May 20, 2024 (Provided)

The attacker was chased away by bystanders who called 911 while Rodriguez stumbled back into her building and buzzed her father on the intercom for help.

“The father comes down to aid his daughter,” Chief Kenny said. “As she’s dying, she tells him that ‘Ty did this.’”

Rodriguez was rushed to Harlem Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The police chief said Rodriguez and Jemmott, who had previously filed domestic incident reports, ended their two-year relationship last week.