Ms. Watson said it was her son who had first been friendly with Ms. Morales, and that Ms. Bond had met her through him. When Ms. Morales visited the family’s apartment, she was friendly but distant, Ms. Watson said.
Mr. Solano, Ms. Morales’s lawyer, said her client had also been born and raised in the Bronx and that she and Ms. Bond would play basketball together. Ms. Morales’s upbringing had been difficult, he said, and she had gotten into fights and had experienced problems with her family “like any other 15-year-old.”
On Oct. 13, Ms. Bond reported that Ms. Morales had attacked and stabbed her, Ms. Watson said. Asked to confirm the episode, the police said only that a 20-year-old woman had complained to them of being slashed in the face and stabbed in the back after a verbal dispute.
Mr. Solano said he was unaware of Ms. Morales’s possible role in that encounter, but he questioned why she was not arrested if the police believed she was involved.
On Nov. 2, the police said, officers responded to a 911 call about an assault at a different Bronx apartment building. Ms. Bond’s father lived at the address, Ms. Watson said. She said she believes her daughter’s attackers lured her there.
Officers found Ms. Bond with a stab wound in her chest, the police said. Emergency medical workers took her to Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Ms. Bond gave birth to a son last year. The boy, Chance, will turn 1 on Thanksgiving.
“She was a beautiful person,” Ms. Watson said. “What happened to her, she definitely didn’t deserve.”
Ashley Southall contributed reporting. Sheelagh McNeill and Susan C. Beachy contributed research.