A beloved Brooklyn teen who was a drummer in a marching band was mysteriously stabbed to death and left on a sidewalk Friday night in East New York, police say.
Tanaya Grant-Copeland was found unconscious on a sidewalk near a rail yard at Stanley Avenue and Linwood Street shortly before 10:30 p.m. Friday, police say. She had multiple stab wounds and was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
A taxi driver found Grant-Copeland, according to a release from family spokesman Tony Herbert.
Grant-Copeland went to Long Island University last fall and was active in the Royal Knights marching band, a nonprofit community band in Brooklyn, according to her mother, Rochelle Copeland. The 18-year-old went to band practice less than two hours before the stabbing, and she went to hang out with some friends afterward.
“She drums, and basically that's her whole life,” her mother said.
Copeland said she didn’t know that her daughter, the fourth of her five children, had been killed until she got home from working a late shift.
"I didn't get to say goodbye," Copeland said.
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The teen's mother said her daughter was stabbed in the neck, back and abdomen.
“Whoever did this wanted her dead,” she said.
A vigil for Grant-Copeland was held at the site of the killing Saturday evening.
No arrests have been made.
