Then, as crime dropped in New York City, more people began to use the park, even cutting through its secluded wooded lanes after nightfall.

But the killing of an 18-year-old Barnard student in the park on Wednesday evening shattered that sense of safety and left the abutting campuses, and the Morningside Heights neighborhood they are a part of, in shock and grief.

[The killing of Tessa Majors unnerves a campus and the city.]

The student, Tessa Majors, was stabbed repeatedly after she was approached by one to three people near West 116th Street and Morningside Drive, the police said. Once the attackers fled, Ms. Majors climbed a staircase out of the park. A security guard found her and called 911.

She was taken to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital, where she died from her injuries, the police said.