SEAS Doctoral Student, 30, Dead Following Stabbing On 123rd And Amsterdam

Upper West Side NY

05 December, 2021

11:29 AM

Description

Columbia Daily Spectator BY ELIZABETH KARPEN, DIA GILL, IRIE SENTNER, AND ZACHARY SCHERMELE DECEMBER 4, 2021 Davide Giri, a sixth-year doctoral student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, died following a stabbing that occurred near 123rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue on Thursday around 11 p.m, interim SEAS Dean Shih-Fu Chang and SEAS Senior Vice Dean Soulaymane Kachani announced in an email Friday morning. Giri was 30 years old. "We have very few details at this time, but we understand that the student was assaulted while walking in the vicinity of 123rd and Amsterdam Avenue," University President Lee Bollinger wrote in a separate email to the Columbia community. "The criminal investigation is ongoing and police have a suspect in custody." During the investigation into Giri's murder, police discovered a second victim, a 27-year-old man, with stab wounds near West 110th Street and Cathedral Parkway. He was taken to the hospital in stable condition. The victim was later identified as Roberto Malaspina, a visiting scholar at the School of the Arts, Bollinger wrote in a separate email on Saturday. Malaspina, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in philosophy and human sciences at Università degli Studi di Milano in Milan, Italy, had recently arrived in New York to begin several months of independent research at Columbia. Police found the suspect within the area of West 104th Street and Central Park West threatening a third individual in Central Park with a knife. The third victim was uninjured. The suspect was later identified as Vincent Pinkney, a 25-year-old Harlem resident. Pinkney was arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder, assault, attempted assault, and three counts of criminal possession of a weapon. "This news is both unspeakably sad and deeply shocking, as it took place only steps from our campus," Bollinger wrote. Giri received his M.Phil. in computer science from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2020 and a master's in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2015. He received a master's in electronic engineering from Politecnico di Torino in 2014 and a dual bachelor's degree in information technology engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Politecnico di Milano, and Tongji University in 2012. At Columbia, Giri was pursuing a doctorate in computer science wherein he focused on architectures and system-level design methodologies for heterogeneous system-on-chip. In 2018, he was awarded Columbia's Andrew P. Kosoresow Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching and Service. Giri's assault occurred almost exactly two years after and within blocks of the 2019 fatal stabbing of Barnard student Tess Majors in Morningside Park. In October, Luchiano Lewis, one of three teenagers charged in Majors' murder, was tried as an adult and sentenced to nine years to life. In June 2020, the only one of the three teenagers to be tried as a minor was sentenced to 18 months in the custody of the New York City Administration for Children's Services. Rashaun Weaver will also be tried as an adult. Max Crownover, a first-year post-baccalaureate student, was "shocked" when he woke up to Bollinger's email, though he "wasn't surprised." Crownover, who moved to Morningside Heights in August, said the proximity of this incident to where Majors was killed is "really concerning." He laid a bouquet of flowers on the sidewalk beneath the police tape near the scene, returning later with signs that read, "Clean up our neighborhood" and "Columbia do something." "When a student goes to school, I feel like they are entitled to a certain level of safety which has not been provided to them," he said. As Chris Watkins, a longtime Morningside Heights resident, walked his dog past the scene, he felt "sick" about the incident. "Our thoughts are with this young graduate student," he said. "It's just a horrific, horrific tragedy in our neighborhood—another one." In response to the incident, the New York Police Department will temporarily provide an increased police presence after 7 p.m. in Morningside Park and the city's parks department will supplement the number of safety officers assigned to the park every night, Vice President of Public Safety James McShane wrote in an email to students on Friday afternoon. Columbia Public Safety has added additional foot patrols on sections of Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue and additional vehicle patrols dedicated to Morningside Drive and the perimeter of Morningside Park. The NYPD will temporarily assign patrol vehicles inside the park 24 hours a day, McShane wrote in a separate email on Saturday. The increased parks department safety officers and Public Safety activity will continue indefinitely. When similar measures were introduced after Majors' death, community leaders faced backlash from residents over concerns of over-policing in a neighborhood with a historically tense relationship with law enforcement. On campus, student groups demanded to defund and reform Public Safety, citing incidents of public safety officers perpetrating anti-Black violence as well as Public Safety's close relationship with the New York Police Department. McShane, for example, previously served in the NYPD for 24 years before coming to Columbia. A candlelight vigil for Giri will be held on Butler Lawn at 5 p.m. on Friday, Bollinger wrote in a separate email to students. The University will also host quiet reflection spaces in Earl Hall and St. Paul's Chapel from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Counseling and Psychological Services will extend its hours until 7 p.m. this evening, with drop-in hours at 5 Lerner Hall from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Barnard will conduct walk-in listening hours in the Brooks Hall lounge between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Friday. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Information about Columbia's Counseling and Psychological Services can be found here and about Barnard's Rosemary Furman Counseling Center here. Students on and off campus may contact the CPS clinician on-call, available 24/7, at (212) 854-2878. A full list of Columbia's health and well-being resources can be found here. Managing Editor Elizabeth Karpen can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @LizzieKarpen. News Editor Dia Gill can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @_diagill. Deputy News Editor Irie Sentner can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @iriesentner. Senior staff writer Zach Schermele can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ZachSchermele. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.