Attempted-murder rap for Hempstead teen

A 14-year-old Hempstead High School student was arrested and charged as an adult with attempted murder for the stabbing of a 15-year-old schoolmate, police said yesterday.

Floyd McNeil Jr., of 100 Terrace Ave. in Hempstead, was also charged with first-degree assault and fourth-degree possession of a dangerous weapon in connection with the Monday afternoon stabbing in Hempstead.

The victim, whose name was not released, underwent emergency surgery after the incident, Nassau police said, and remained hospitalized last night in serious but stable condition.

Det. Sgt. James Watson said the two youths went to the same schools in Hempstead for a number of years. "They definitely knew each other," Watson said.

The teen was heading home on Peninsula Boulevard about 3:15 p.m., police said, when a confrontation between the boy and McNeil erupted in a McDonald's parking lot.

"We think it was a spillover from a prior altercation from Saturday night," Watson said. "Possibly over a girl."

A crowd of other young teenagers encircled the two and were watching the fight when McNeil stabbed the 15-year-old in the abdomen, police said, and everyone immediately fled.

"After he was stabbed, the victim began to run from the scene and collapsed several yards away," Watson said.

Later that night there was a drive-by shooting in which two men, ages 18 and 21, received non-life-threatening wounds. Detectives were investigating the possibility the incidents might be related, police said.

At McNeil's arraignment in First District Court in Hempstead Wednesday, Judge Angelo Delligatti set bail at $150,000. McNeil is at the Nassau County Juvenile Detention Center.

With John Valenti