Twin girl, 19, stabbed to death after identical sisters were knifed outside Brooklyn bodega ‘after rejecting attacker’s advances’ as police hunt for jilted suspect

A teenage girl has died after being stabbed outside a New York City bodega by an assailant who unsuccessfully tried to make advances on her.

Samyia Spain, 19, and died of stab wounds to the chest and neck, and her twin sister Sanyia was hospitalized at 2:20 a.m. Sunday with wounds to her arm after they were attacked outside Slope Natural Plus on Fourth Avenue.

The twin girls were partying with friends when they went to the deli in the early morning hours. According to witnesses, they rejected the attacker’s romantic advances before he stabbed them both.

“He had a knife in his hand and said, ‘I’m going to stab you all in the face,’” a heartbroken Sanyia told the Daily news after discharge from hospital.

“I tell everyone to back up. And he pushed little Samyia to the ground.

The pair are said to have been at the same club as their attacker and an accomplice earlier in the evening before being followed to the shop which was packed with late night revelers.

While they waited to be served, a friend told Sanyia that a man was talking to her sister.

“I picked up her phone and was like, ‘Come with me, come with me,’” Sanyia said.

“I thought, ‘Why are you talking to that guy?’ She said, “I don’t want to talk to that boy.”

Sanyia said her sister refused to give him her phone number but instead gave him her Instagram account.

“She said she wouldn’t follow him back,” Sanyia said. ‘That is it. She said no.’

Moments later, the mood turned grim as the man returned to the store.

“He pushed little Samyia, and then I pushed him,” Sanyia said, “and then everyone else started pushing him out the door.”

The men became angry and were thrown out by the manager who locked the door on them, she added.

“When we finished waiting for our food, he let us out of the store,” Sanyia said. ‘After he let us out of the store, he locked the door behind us.

When they saw the perpetrator armed with a knife and waiting outside with two of his friends, the twins’ brother intervened and a fight broke out.

“When I went to take Samyia’s phone, he stabbed me in the arm,” Sanyia said.

‘Samyia then asked him to give her the phone back, and he stabbed her in the neck.

“She said, ‘I’m going to pass out.’ As soon as she said I was going to pass out, I called 911.”

Another witness said chaos broke out when the extent of Samyia’s injuries became clear.

“Everyone started caring for her,” the woman explained.

“One of her friends took off their shirt and started applying compression to her neck to slow the bleeding. She poured blood all over the street.”

Both women were taken to New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where Samyia was pronounced dead and her sister named their grandfather Alphonso Goodson, 66.

“She says, ‘Grandpa, Samyia got stabbed and she died,’” Goodson told the newspaper Daily news.

‘I could not believe it. When I got the call, I came as quickly as possible.

‘We are all having a very hard time. My daughter, she’s having a pretty tough time. We never expect something like this to happen. He walked in and started hitting her,” he added.

“She said, ‘I don’t want to be bothered with you.’ Leave me alone.’ Then the store owner kicked him out.

“He started kicking the door, he started banging on the door.

“I don’t know if they called the police, but at the time (the store owner) should have called. And when they left the store, he attacked them.

‘He was waiting for them.

“He took it the wrong way. He came after them. That was wrong. That was completely wrong. I hope they catch this guy.’

The store was the scene of another brutal murder in 2021 when Latisha Bell, 38, fatally shot her on-off girlfriend of 20 years, Nichelle Thomas, 52, in broad daylight.

Bell was convicted of murder last month and is in jail awaiting sentencing.

Police have appealed for help finding Sunday’s killer, who witnesses said wore a ski mask and fled after the attack, leaving a knife in the blood-stained street.

“She was a very good person,” a friend told The NY Post.

“She was in school, she was working. She was very sweet. She didn’t cause any problems. All she wanted was to have fun.”

Samyia had started working at Walgreens after returning to Brooklyn from North Carolina with her sister.

“They wanted to come back to the city because this is what they know,” Goodson said.

“It was too quiet there.”

Samyia wrote on social media about getting a tattoo shortly before heading out on her night off, posting her last message at 9.23pm on Saturday: ‘My friends are looking for me at the club but I’m drunk making new friends. ‘

Deli worker Mohammed Albher said the twins were regular customers at the store.

“They came every day,” he added, “they come and shake my hand. Say, how are you?

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Nobody, nobody, she’s a nice girl.’

A friend of the twins said they did not know their attacker before he struck.

‘It was a random person, it’s surprising, very surprising. It was a kitchen knife,” she added.

‘You know who I blame? The government, for the simple fact, you shut down all this mental health care, and now look who’s running out here.

‘Those are the people who don’t get into trouble. There are a thousand cameras and no arrests are made.”