New York

NYPD: Amanda Cummings’ suicide not a result of bullying

Amanda Cummings

The uncle of a Staten Island teen who killed herself still maintains she was mercilessly bullied before her death, despite an NYPD investigation that found no evidence she was harassed.

Fifteen-year-old Amanda Cummings died after she threw herself in front of a city bus in December.

Police sources told the New York Post yesterday that, after speaking with the girl’s close friends and family members, they found no evidence that she was tormented in the days leading up to her death.
But Amanda’s uncle, Keith Cummings, told Metro he doesn’t believe it and doubts the police even looked at his niece’s cell phone.

After Amanda’s death, her phone held vicious text messages from other girls at her school, as well as from her former 19-year-old boyfriend, Keith said.

Cummings said classmates tormented his niece, a sophomore at New Dorp High School, after she started dating the older teen.

“There were kids outside her school that said she was bullied every day,” Cummings said. “I don’t think they would make up that stuff.”

Cummings said Amanda’s mother, Cecile Weber, also believes her daughter was bullied before her death.

Keith said Amanda was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment after she made suicidal comments in 2009.

A childhood friend of Amanda’s, 15-year-old Tyler Musante, said she never mentioned being bullied to him.

“I wouldn’t have expected that from her,” Musante said. “She was always the one to cheer us up.”


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