A Staten Island mom was stabbed to death while trying to protect her 12-year-old daughter during a violent altercation involving 20 women and girls.
Jennira Roundtree, 43, died after succumbing to knife wounds to the heart and lungs and being slashed in the stomach with an umbrella during a chaotic brawl outside the family’s NYCHA building on Jan. 7, The Oakland Press reports. The fight, which erupted around 7:35 p.m. Tuesday at the West Brighton Houses on Henderson Ave. near Broadway, involved 20 women and girls who had reportedly been targeting Roundtree’s daughter.
“The mother went outside in defense of her daughter,” a police source told the Daily News. “One person approached and stabbed her.”
On Monday, Jasmin Thompson, 20, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon. The suspect claims she was acting in self-defense when attacking Roundtree.
Friends of Roundtree’s daughter had come into the building to summon Roundtree’s older daughter. The sister and their mother intervened, with Roundtree losing her life in the process.
“Some girls come in to fight with the little girl, and some friends, they go upstairs, and then the sister was coming,” the 30-year-old neighbor said. “I don’t know where her mom came from. Maybe she was outside [already].”
“When I see the sister fighting I said, ‘Let me go downstairs’ because I know those kids. There were a lot of people fighting,” the neighbor added.
By the time the neighbor got downstairs, Roundtree was already injured on the ground.
“The police took her,” she said. “When they carried her, I saw she had a lot of blood. I heard her say, ‘I can’t breathe!’ That’s the only thing she said.”
Medics transported Roundtree to Richmond University Medical Center, but she succumbed to her injuries. Authorities confirmed that the knife used in the fatal attack was recovered at the scene.
Roundtree’s friends remember her as someone who was always smiling and deeply committed to helping local children stay off the streets.
“This neighborhood was important to her because she wanted different for all the kids coming up,” her friend said. “And she was trying to make a difference, and she was.”
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