NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Police arrested a suspect May 15 in the stabbing death of a New Jersey teenager who rebuffed the romantic advances of two men at a city bus stop, saying she was a lesbian.

The arrest came as a crowd of 300 rallied outside City Hall to decry the death of Sakia Gunn, 15, who was stabbed in the chest early May 11 at the city’s busiest intersection.

Richard McCullough, 29, turned himself in to police at 5:00 p.m. with his attorney just as the rally was breaking up, Lt. Derek Glenn said. He faces charges including murder and bias intimidation, Glenn said.

“Nobody had the right to take my child away,” Sakia’s mother, Latona Gunn, told the crowd outside City Hall, some of whom were from gay rights groups. “Nobody deserves to die the way she did.”

Sakia, a sophomore at West Side High School, died at University Hospital in Newark shortly after she was stabbed.

McCullough’s lawyer, Cassandra Savoy of Montclair, refused to comment on the case May 15.

Sakia’s friend, Esh Walker, said it was well-known among students at West High that Sakia was gay, and that no one bothered her because of it.

Another friend, Jaimekai Johnson, said she helped organize the rally to bring attention to the danger that bias poses to all people.

“We want justice, not only for Sakia but for every victim of a bias crime,” she said.

The demonstrators wore white headbands with Sakia’s name on them and T-shirts with slogans such as “We Will Miss You, Baby Girl.”

Sakia’s cousin, Anthony Hall, addressed the crowd from the steps of City Hall, angrily denouncing Mayor Sharpe James and what he termed inadequate police protection in the area.

“Your kid could be dead, just like my cousin is,” he said. “We need to stop this madness. Who is someone to judge anybody else? No one has that right. It shouldn’t matter whether you’re gay or not.”

The mayor was not at the rally, but he attended a press conference at police headquarters.

“We will not tolerate bias crime in the city of Newark,” James said.

On the night of the stabbing, Sakia and her girlfriend were waiting for a bus in Newark after a night out in Greenwich Village, police said.

McCullough was a passenger in a 1988 Chevrolet station wagon that pulled up to the girls about 3:20 a.m., authorities said. McCullough and the driver, who has not been charged, got out to talk to the girls.

Sakia was stabbed after she said she was a lesbian, authorities said.

A Newark Police booth is located at the intersection where the stabbing occurred, but it was unstaffed at the time.

The mayor said the booth has not been manned between 1:00 and 6:00 a.m. for several years, after an analysis showed that there was too little activity at the intersection to justify overnight police presence there.

Gay rights advocates said they hoped to raise community awareness of the dangers of anti-gay bias.

“We’re horrified that this could happen in New Jersey, which has a reputation as a more open, accepting state,” said Michael Blake, president of the New Jersey Stonewall Democrats, a statewide organization of GLBT Democrats.

“It shows that violence against gays can happen anywhere,” Blake said.

A service was held at Perry’s Funeral Home in Newark on May 16 before Gunn’s body was taken to Fairmount Cemetery.

Kathy Renna, a spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation estimated at least 1,500 people turned out for the service.

“It was really stunning to see that large a turnout,” Renna said. “It was amazing to see that many boys and girls, teenagers, many of them who had on T-shirts and rainbow flags, and clearly understanding why it was so important to be there.”

Renna said the scene provided “a real sense of recognition that this was a hate crime and this is an issue that the city needs to deal with.”