The boy’s mother was also stabbed. She survived without serious injury.
A woman allegedly stabbed a 3-year-old boy to death outside an Ohio grocery store in a random attack, police say.
The boy, Julian, and his mother, Margot Wood, were both stabbed around 3 p.m. Monday in the parking lot of a Giant Eagle in North Olmsted, about 15 miles from Cleveland, according to North Olmsted police.
Julian was stabbed in the back and cheek, police said. Wood, 38, survived with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The suspect, Bionca Ellis, 32, was taken into custody, police said.
Ellis and the victims did not know each other, the North Olmsted police detective said. Sgt. Matt Beck told a news conference Tuesday that it was a “random act of violence.”
Ellis got “some kind of kitchen knife” from a nearby store and headed to the Giant Eagle, where she “spotted Ms. Wood and her son and then started following them to the parking lot,” said Beck.
Ellis then allegedly attacked the mother and son near their car while Julian was sitting in the shopping cart, Beck said.
“As a mother, I can’t even begin to understand this feeling of loss that this family is going through,” North Olmsted Mayor Nicole Dailey Jones said during Tuesday’s news conference. “The city and I all share in your loss.”
Ellis was charged with aggravated murder, Beck said. Additional charges will be filed, Beck said.