Child, 4, stabbed multiple times in New Jersey home, suspect at large: Police
(PATERSON, N.J.) — As the search continued Sunday for a relative accused of stabbing a 4-year-old girl multiple times at the child’s New Jersey home, the father of the young victim said she’s fighting for her life and the attack left him “dumbfounded.”
The child remains in stable condition at Saint Joseph’s University Medical Center, where she is being treated for puncture wounds to her lung and liver and an injured diaphragm, according to her family.
“She couldn’t respond because she had tubes and everything down her, but she opened her eyes and when she heard my voice she started making eye contact trying to see me. That brought joy to me that she was responsive,” the girl’s father, Faherem LaSane, told ABC New York station WABC outside the hospital on Saturday afternoon.
LaShane said his daughter’s name is Amber, and described her as a happy girl with a big smile and an appetite to match.
The stabbing unfolded just after 4 p.m. on Friday in Paterson, New Jersey, according to the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office. Officers were called to the home for a domestic dispute and found the child stabbed multiple times, prosecutors said.
Police did not immediately identify the suspect, but Paterson council member Luis Velez told WABC that police are looking for the child’s aunt in connection with the incident.
The aunt was babysitting Amber while the girl’s mother was at the home caring for another child, relatives said.
Neighbor Keema James said she saw the mother emerge from the home holding the child, both covered in blood.
“She had a big gash on her forehead and she had her wrapped up,” James said of the victim in an interview with WABC.
LaShan said he was stunned when he received word of the stabbing and immediately rushed to the hospital to be at his daughter’s side.
“I was totally dumbfounded, and I was shocked because I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to believe it at all,” LaShan said.
A motive for the stabbing remains under investigation.
The Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office asked anyone with information about the incident to contact its office.
(NEW YORK) — A tropical storm warning is in effect in the Carolinas as the coast braces for a new storm set to make landfall on Monday.
The tropical system may strengthen to Tropical Storm Helene by the time it comes on shore near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Monday afternoon.
Helene will bring the threat of wind gusts up to 55 mph, coastal flooding with waves up to 11 feet, heavy rain possibly reaching 10 inches and potential flash flooding.
There’s also a threat for a few tornadoes in North Carolina on Monday.
Some of the rain will then reach the Mid-Atlantic, including Washington, D.C., by Tuesday.
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina face the risk of flash flooding on Monday and Tuesday.
The coastal city of Wilmington, North Carolina, is in the bull’s-eye for the worst of the flooding. Flash flood threat map, Sep. 16, 2024.
(NEW YORK) — The state rested its case on Wednesday afternoon after the second day of testimony in the trial of Susan Lorincz — the Florida woman who is charged in the fatal shooting of her neighbor Ajike “AJ” Owens through a closed door.
The defense began presenting their witnesses on Wednesday afternoon, which could include two of Owens’ sons, Isaac, 13, and Israel, 10, who witnessed his mother’s shooting.
Owens family attorney Anthony Thomas told ABC News on Wednesday that while prosecutors decided not to call the boys to testify, it is unclear if the defense will ask them to take the stand.
Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, spoke out in a press conference on Wednesday morning and said that she wishes her grandkids “did not have to testify, but if this is what it takes to get justice, and this is what we have to do.”
“[Lorincz] did kill my daughter; that in itself, is hurtful. But also the fact that one of [my grandchildren] could have been injured or killed as well is beyond any emotion or feeling that can truly be expressed,” Dias added. “She has no regards for any form of human life, certainly not my family.”
According to a June 6, 2023, statement from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), Lorincz shot Owens, a Black mother of four, through a closed door in the presence of her now 10-year-old son after she went to speak with Lorincz about a dispute over Owens’ children playing near her home. Lorincz called 911 after fatally shooting Owens and admitted to the shooting.
Lorincz, who is white, was arrested on June 6, 2023, and charged with first-degree felony manslaughter for fatally shooting Owens on June 2, 2023, in Ocala, Florida. She pleaded not guilty on July 10, 2023, and was held on a $150,000 bond. If convicted, Lorincz faces up to 30 years in prison, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
A host of neighbors, including two children, sheriff’s deputies, a 911 dispatcher, crime scene investigators and forensics experts were among those who were called to testify by the prosecution.
A focus of the state’s argument over the past two days was on the first 911 call that Lorincz made to report “trespassing” on June 2, 2023 — minutes before she ended up shooting Owens. According to witnesses, including the sheriff’s deputies who responded to the shooting, law enforcement was already on their way to Lorincz’s home when the shooting occurred because she had called 911 to report three children — one Latino and two Black — were “trespassing” on her property.
Troy Gann, a 911 operator, said on Tuesday that he received a call from Lorincz, who reported children “badgering her” and “trespassing” on her property. Sheriff’s deputies were then dispatched to her home.
Michael Stringer, a patrol deputy with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, testified on Tuesday that after receiving a call about trespassing at Lorincz’s home, he and a deputy trainee were dispatched “immediately” to her home, which was 10-15 minutes away, but said that while he was headed to Lorincz’s home, the call was upgraded to a shooting.
He described seeing the victim (Owens) lying on the ground and described detaining Lorincz, who was inside her home at the time of their arrival. Asked if he observed any weapons on Owens or near Owens, he said, “no.”
During opening arguments on Tuesday, the defense argued that Lorincz was acting in self-defense because she feared for her life, while prosecutors stressed that Owens was “unarmed” and fatally shot through a “locked” door.
“The death of AJ Owens is a tragedy. There is no doubt about that, but what the evidence will show is that in her mind, in her soul, in her core, Susan Lorincz felt she had no choice,” public defender Morris Carranza said. “It was either Susan or AJ. Susan chose to defend herself.”
The defense claimed that Owens told Lorincz that she was going to “kill” her, while prosecutors told jurors in opening remarks that they would hear from witnesses who were present during the confrontation who will deny this claim.
Amid the defense’s claim that Owens was trying to “break” down Lorincz’s front door, the state called Lorincz’s former landlord Charles Gabbard to the stand on Tuesday.
Gabbard testified that prior to the shooting he had repaired a jam on Lorincz’s front door. He said that her door was “structurally sound” after he repaired it, despite some cosmetic damage. He said that the door was sturdy and had a chain, a deadbolt and a lock.
During cross-examination, Gabbard said that Lorincz did not tell him how the door was damaged but that “it was clear that someone slammed” the door. He said that after repairing it, he was planning to replace Lorincz’s door at some point. Asked by Lorincz’s attorney Carranza if the crack in the door was “substantial,” Gabbard said, “Yes.”
On Wednesday the jury was shown the previously released interrogation video of Lorincz’s detention, where she made the claim that Owens was trying to “break” into her home, and much of the testimony and cross examination focused on Lorincz shooting Owens through a locked door, with questions about the sturdiness of the door.
Judge Robert W. Hodges of Florida’s 5th Judicial Circuit, who is presiding over the case, said on Monday that the trial is expected to be over by Friday.
(NEW YORK) — The venue will be changed in the University of Idaho quadruple murder trial, Judge John Judge has ruled.
The judge said, “Considering the undisputed evidence presented by the defense, the extreme nature of the news coverage in this case, and the smaller population in Latah County, the defense has met the rather low standard of demonstrating ‘a reasonable likelihood’ that prejudicial news coverage will compromise a fair trial in Latah County. Thus, the Court will grant Kohberger’s motion to change venue for presumed prejudice.”
The new location was not immediately clear. The decision will be left up to Idaho’s highest court.
Lawyers for the suspect, Bryan Kohberger, pushed to move the trial to Boise, arguing the local jury pool in Latah County, which encompasses Moscow, was tainted by pretrial publicity.
Defense lawyers surveyed Latah County residents and said their results found that the “pressure to convict” Kohberger was shown to be “so severe” that the venue couldn’t be impartial.
The defense said one respondent answered they would “burn the courthouse down” if he were not convicted. The same survey, according to the defense, found “much less emotional” responses from people living closer to Boise, which is about 300 miles south of Moscow.
The prosecution has said the case has national and international interest, and that the case has been covered plenty in Boise, so a change of venue would not solve any problem.
The relatives of victim Kaylee Goncalves said they’re “incredibly disappointed” that the venue will be changed.
“As victims’s families you are left to just watch like everyone else and really you have little rights or say in the process and at the same time you are the most vested in the outcome,” the family said in a statement on Monday. “We have always felt that a fair and impartial jury could be found in Latah County and still believe that is where the trial deserves to be held to help the community heal.”
Moscow Mayor Art Bettge said in a statement in August that, if the case stayed in Latah County, “I firmly believe people would be able to set aside any personal feelings they have … set aside any information they may have read or heard … and make a determination of guilt or not guilty based on the evidence presented in the courtroom and deliberate according to the instructions provided to them.”
The trial is set to begin on June 2, 2025, and run until Aug. 29, 2025. The judge said in June that if the venue changed, the trial date would still hold.
Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in an off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Kohberger was a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time.
Kohberger was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.