Family grieves after boy's stabbing death, classmate arrested

WEST PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A family is grieving and a teenager is in custody after the stabbing death of a 14-year-old in West Philadelphia.

88-year-old Ann Presley, who suffers from a heart condition, was trying to hold it together Monday night in the wake of her grandson's untimely death.

"I'm trying to hold it down, I'm trying," Ann Presley told Action News.

She says she raised 14-year-old Nafis O'Neal since he was just a little boy.

"I mean as a kid, raised him up, respect for other people, have respect. This is a religious home," Ann Presley said.

Police say O'Neal, a freshman at West Philadelphia High School, was stabbed to death Friday during an altercation with another student, a 16-year-old.

Investigators say it began earlier in the day when O'Neal got into a fight with other students in the school lunchroom.

The fight was broken up and things appeared to be back to normal.

"It was supposed to have died down, but then when he got outside the school after school hours, then it escalated again. They basically like followed him, so they were watching him the whole time, basically, it's what it sounds like to me," the victim's uncle Quincy Presley said.

Police say O'Neal was stabbed in the chest just a few blocks from the school at 46th and Market streets.

He was rushed to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where he later died.

Police served a search warrant at the 16-year-old's home in the 3800 block of Haverford Avenue where they say they recovered the weapon and bloody clothing.

"It's not easy," Ann Presley said.

Meanwhile, relatives were having a difficult time finding comfort in their grief and trying to arrange a funeral for a young man they loved.

"He was outgoing, do anything for anybody. All the kids, everybody loved him. This right here is a situation that is unbelievable that it had to happen," Quincy Presley said.

The 16-year-old who has not been identified because of his age has been charged with homicide, possession of an instrument of crime and reckless endangerment of another person.

It has not yet been determined if he will be tried as an adult.