A star high school football player from East Harlem’s Jefferson Houses was stabbed to death during a fight in a Bronx parking lot on Tuesday, just hours after the 19-year-old graduated, police said.
Isayah Muller, of 228 East 115th Street, had just left his commencement ceremony for the Bronx’s Truman High School held at the nearby campus of Lehman College when his father, Andre, got into an argument with a parking lot attendant whom he had accused of stealing something from his car, according NYPD chief spokesman Paul Browne.
Muller’s father, Andre Muller, 40, realized the property — reportedly expensive cologne — was missing only after he began driving away from the lot. Cops said he turned the car around and drove back to the lot where he and Isayah got out of the car and a fight ensued, resulting in Isayah being stabbed in the chest.
It was unclear how many people were involved or who stabbed Isayah.
Andre Muller was arrested and charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.
The family parked their car at M.T. Jerome Town Corp at 2801 Jerome Avenue and 198th Street around 9 a.m. and headed back to the lot to pick up the car around 4 p.m. en route to a celebratory dinner on City Island.
After the stabbing, Muller and his father rushed back to the family car just outside the lot where Isayah’s mother and girlfriend were waiting, cops said. The family first drove to a clinic 10 blocks away, where medical personnel called an ambulance to take Muller to St. Barnabas Hospital.
He was pronounced dead there at 5:56 p.m., Browne said.
As running back for the Truman Mustangs, Isayah Muller let his team to their first-ever PSAL Bowl title, the Daily News reported. He ran for an impressive 290 yards and scored two touchdowns in the Mustangs defeat over Beach Channel 23-20.
A man who identified himself as Dev, said Muller was known around his East Harlem neighborhood for concentrating on school and sports.
“I just saw him on his prom night last week and he was looking sharp. He was a cool, cool dude,” Dev said.
“He was straight doing the sports thing. He was a school dude who I heard was getting a scholarship. He was focused on his football thing,” he said.
“A young man with such a gifted talent,” Estephanie Colon wrote on a Facebook tribute page to Muller. “Didn’t deserve this. My respect & condolences go out to your family.”
“Died over sumthin [sic] so petty,” Vernon Nitty Henderson Jr. wrote. “RIP homie.”
With additional reporting by Jeff Mays.
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