Police Dispute Self-Defense Claim In Stabbing Death of 15-Year-Old

A man charged with stabbing a 15-year-old girl to death is telling police that he was defending himself from an angry mob, but investigators say they believe his claim may be dubious.

Police say Winston Alladin, 39, who works as a security guard in Midtown Manhattan, got into an argument Wednesday night with a woman after she and her child cut in front of him in a line to board a bus in Queens. The dispute continued after the three boarded the bus, and when the vehicle stopped at 137-42 Bedell St. to let off Mr. Alladin, three men followed and harangued him over the incident. According to police, a crowd of two women and about eight men gathered around Mr. Alladin as the argument escalated. Mr. Alladin claims the growing crowd became threatening and that he took out a knife to ward them off, only to end up accidentally stabbing Keyanna Jones, 15. She was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead on arrival. She was not on the bus in which the initial incident began. Police arrested Mr. Alladin at the scene of the stabbing.

Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday that investigators believe the way Jones was stabbed is not consistent with Mr. Alladin's claims of self-defense.

"The knife was put directly into her chest," Mr. Kelly said.

Police charged Mr. Alladin with manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree yesterday morning.