Video Footage Contradicts Cyan Brown's Self-Defense Claim

by Alicia Cruz
Theblackurbantimes

UPDATE
Initial reports that 16-year-old Cyan Brown was fleeing an attempted assault by several men then fatally stabbed one on Christmas Eve, may be wrong. Police and prosecutors came to this conclusion after reviewing video footage of the incident that they say contradicts Browns account of the event.

Video footage shows that 29-year-old Thomas Winston appears to have been walking away from Brown when he slipped on the snow and Brown pounced on him stabbing him in the "upper torso, piercing his heart" a report says.

Witnesses told police that Brown was "fleeing from a gang of men" and Brown's mother stated that her daughter was protecting herself from "perverts who tried to fondle her."
Pace, Bryan Freelance NYDN

Prosecutors said, "It is alleged that Ms. Brown exited the restaurant with the knife she had been carrying and that the victim, seeing the knife, backed up but slipped on the snow and fell."

"At that point, it is alleged that Ms. Brown jumped on him and stabbed him once before fleeing into the subway."

"She has to, under the law, be in a position where she believes that deadly physical force is being or is about to be used against her," prosecutors said.

If convicted, Brown faces 25 years in prison. She is was awaiting arraignment Wednesday afternoon.

Cyan Brown Turns Self in at Astoria Precint

by Alicia Cruz

Theblackurbantimes

The 16-year-old girl identified by her parents as the assault victim who turned the tables on her attackers and fatally stabbed one of them turned herself in today where she was scheduled to participate in a police lineup in Astoria, Queens.

Cyan Brown has maintained her innocence in the death of 29-year-old ex-convict, Thomas Winston last Wednesday.

Her lawyer, Samuel Gregory had this to say to media outlets, "Miss Brown surrendered as she said she would at the time we were asked to by the precinct. We think she’ll be exonerated at the end of this case. She has a legitimate defense."

Police said Winston and a group of thugs yanked Brown out of a subway car on Wednesday night after a dispute at a restaurant. She stabbed him when he fought back, cops said.

Gregory said he expects Brown to be charged but wasn’t told what the 16-year-old will be charged with.

See original story here

Media Outlets must credit The Black Urban Times
© 2009 theblackurbantimes

16-Year-Old Queens Teen ID'd as Subway Slayer

By KEVIN FASICK and JAMIE SCHRAM

A 16-year-old Queens girl yesterday was identified by her parents as the assault victim who fatally stabbed one of her attackers after he and some thug pals chased her from the street into the subway.

The girl, Cyan Brown, was holed up at a relative's house in Brooklyn after the Wednesday-night stabbing at the 21st Street-Queensbridge F-train station that killed rapper Thomas "Block Box" Winston, 29, her family said.

"She said she feared for her life and she felt like she was going to be raped, so she panicked," said the teen's dad, Tony Lovitt, 48. "She tried to run away, but another gentleman grabbed her.

Cyan Brown.

"She . . . did what she had to do. She was scared to death with seven or eight males following her. Anyone would do the same thing."

But Winston's family, who knows Cyan, was distraught and angry.

Dyneisha Taylor, 16, the dead man's cousin who was once in a dance troupe with Cyan, said bitterly, "The boy she was with bumped into my cousin, and that started this whole thing."

According to cops and witnesses, Cyan and Winston started arguing after he came on to her.

At one point, he kicked her and threw liquor on her, witnesses said.

He and his pals chased her onto a train at the station, police said, and then pulled her out of a car. She allegedly whipped out a sharp object and fatally stabbed him once in the torso at 8:23 p.m.

Police said Winston had a rap sheet for attempted murder and drugs.