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

An identical twin teenage girl has died after being stabbed outside a New York City bodega by an attacker who had tried to make advances on her.  

Samyia Spain, 19, and died from stab wounds to the chest and neck, and her twin sister Sanyia was hospitalized with wounds to her arm after they were set upon outside Slope Natural Plus on Fourth Avenue at 2.20am on Sunday.

The twin girls had been partying with friends when they went to the deli in the early hours of the morning. They rejected the attacker's romantic advances before he stabbed them both, according to witnesses.  

'He had a knife in his hand and was saying, 'I'm gonna stab y'all in the face,' heartbroken Sanyia told the Daily News after being released from hospital. 

'I'm telling everyone to back up. And he pushed little Samyia to the ground. 

Samyia Spain was enjoying a night out with her identical twin sister Sanyia when she was fatally attacked at a bodega in her native Brooklyn 

The store in Park Slope was the scene of another notorious murder just three years ago when Latisha Bell, 38, shot dead her girlfriend of 20 years, Nichelle Thomas, 52, in broad daylight

Both women were taken to New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital where Samyia was declared dead and her sister remains in a stable condition 

The pair are thought to have been in the same club as their attacker and an accomplice earlier in the evening before they were followed to the store which was heaving with late-night revelers.

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

'I grabbed her phone and I was like, 'Come with me, come with me',' Sanyia said.

'I was like, 'Why are you talking to that boy?' She said, 'I don't want to talk to that boy.''

Sanyia said her sister refused to give him her telephone number but gave him her Instagram handle instead.

'She said she wasn't going to follow him back,' Sanyia recounted. 'That's it. She said no.' 

Moments later the mood became ugly as the man returned to the store. 

'He pushed little Samyia, and then I pushed him,' Sanyia said, 'And then everybody else started pushing him out the door.'

A knife was pictured in a cordoned off area of the bloodstained street in the aftermath 

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

'When we were done waiting for our food, he let us out of the store,' Sanyia said. 'After he let us out the store, he had locked the door behind us.

When they saw the harasser armed with a knife and waiting with two of his friends outside, the twins' brother stepped in and a fight broke out. 

'As I was going to grab (Samyia's phone), he stabbed me in my arm,' Sanyia said.

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

'She said, 'I'm about to faint,' as soon as she said I'm about to faint, I called 911.'

Another witness said that chaos erupted as the extent of Samyia's injuries became apparent.

'Everybody started tending to her,' the explained.

'One of her friends took off their shirts and started putting compression on her neck to try to slow down the bleeding. She was gushing blood just all over the street.'

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

'She says, 'Granddaddy, Samyia got stabbed and she died,' Goodson told the Daily News.

'I couldn't believe it. When I got the call, I came as soon as I could.

A friend described Samyia as 'very lovable'. 'She didn't start any trouble. All she wanted to do was have fun' they added 

'We're all taking it very hard. My daughter, she's taking it pretty hard. We never expect nothing like this to happen. He walked in and started hitting on her,' he added.

'She said, 'I don't want to be bothered with you. Leave me alone.' Then the storeowner put him out.

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

'I don't know if they called the police, but at that time [the storeowner] should have called. And then when they left the store, that's when he attacked them.

'He was waiting for them.

'He took it the wrong way. He came after them. That was wrong. That was dead wrong. I hope they catch this guy.'

The store was the scene of another brutal murder in 2021 when Latisha Bell, 38, shot dead 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 was wearing a ski-mask according to witnesses and fled after the attack leaving a knife on the bloodstained street.

'She was a very good person,' one friend told The NY Post. 'She was in school, she was working. She was very lovable. She didn't start any trouble. All she wanted to do was have fun.'

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

'They wanted to come back to the city because this is what they know,' Goodson said. 'It was too quiet down there.'

Samyia wrote on social media about getting a tattoo shortly before setting off on her night off, and posted her last message at 9.23pm on Saturday: 'My friends looking for me in the club but I'm drunk making new friends.'

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

'They used to come every day,' he added, 'They come, shake my hand. Say, how are you? I don't want to see nobody 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 some random person, it's surprising, very surprising. It was a kitchen knife,' they added.

'You know who I blame? The government, for the simple fact, y'all cut all these mental health off, and now look who's running out here.

'Those are the people that don't get in trouble. There are a thousand cameras and there is no arrest.'