USANewsOnline.Com Desk, New York: Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced March 22 that Jamia Dean, 20, and a sixteen-year-old juvenile have been charged with attempted murder, assault and other crimes for allegedly hitting and stabbing two men on Rockaway Boulevard on March 15, 2022. The men sought refuge inside John Adams High School.
District Attorney Katz said, “This defendant and a juvenile allegedly committed a violent attack, which is particularly brazen, in front of one of our high schools. The two teenaged victims that were stabbed were gravely wounded. We will not tolerate this kind of violence and the defendants will be held accountable for their alleged actions.”
Dean, of Rockaway Boulevard in Ozone Park, Queens was arraigned last night before Queens Criminal Court Judge Jessica Earle-Gargan on a twelve-count complaint charging her with two counts of attempted murder, nine counts of assault in the first, second and third degree and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Judge Earle-Gargan ordered the defendant to return to Court on March 25, 2022. Dean faces up to 25 years in prison, if convicted.
District Attorney Katz said, according to the charges, at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, the defendant and a juvenile were dressed in black attire when they allegedly approached two teenagers in front of John Adams High School on Rockaway Boulevard. The juvenile said “What’s up?” to the sixteen-yearold victim then punched him multiple times in the face while the defendant pulled the victim’s hair. The defendant continued to pull the hair of the first victim as the juvenile produced a knife and stabbed the boy causing deep lacerations to his back and leg. The second teenager, a seventeen-year-old, accompanying the victim attempted to intervene in the attack by jumping onto the juvenile. The defendant then pulled the second victim’s hair as the juvenile punched and stabbed him. The two victims were able to escape the defendant and juvenile. Both victims fled into nearby John Adams High School seeking help.
The victims were transported to an area hospital where they were admitted for medical attention. The sixteen-year-old victim had a stab wound to his back and a large laceration on one leg. He required a chest tube, sustained injury to his right lung and was admitted to the hospital for three days. The seventeen-year-old victim sustained seven laceration wounds to his torso, back, arm and hip including a six-inch deep wound that injured his spleen. He underwent two surgeries to his spleen and elbow and was admitted to the hospital for five days after life-threatening blood loss.
Continuing, following the attack, according to video surveillance footage, the defendant and juvenile wearing black clothing headed west on Rockaway Boulevard. The defendant and juvenile were later captured on video surveillance footage at another location near 102nd Street removing black clothing and discarding items into a trash receptacle.
The investigation was conducted by Detective Patrick Cahill of the Queens Detective Area 106 of the New York City Police Department.
Assistant District Attorney Jamie-Lynn Burns, of the Felony Trials IV Bureau, is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Karen Rankin, Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Supreme Court Trials Pishoy Yacoub.
Criminal complaints and indictments are accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.