The lethal stabbing took only five seconds, and police found the suspect with the kitchen knife.
Police reported that 32-year-old Bionca Ellis of Cleveland, who had no prior history of violent crime, stabbed and killed a 3-year-old boy outside a grocery store in Ohio. The attack, described as unprovoked and random, occurred on Monday afternoon.
Ellis allegedly obtained a kitchen knife from a nearby thrift store before attacking 38-year-old Margot Wood and her son Julian Wood outside the Giant Eagle grocery store. She stabbed the boy in the head and back and the mother on her shoulder.
Both victims received first aid from police and were transported to St. John Medical Center, where Julian was pronounced dead. Ellis was apprehended walking towards Dover Center Road with the knife and was charged with aggravated murder. There was no prior interaction between Ellis and the victims.
Police described the incident as “entirely a random act of violence.” News photographs showed a grocery cart overturned and items scattered across the parking lot. The mother is expected to recover from her non-life-threatening injuries.
Ellis’s bond was set at $1 million, with additional charges expected after presentation to a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury. Despite no violent crime history, Ellis was previously arrested for theft in Florida in May.
North Olmsted Mayor Nicole Dailey Jones expressed condolences, saying, “To lose their youngest child in such a violent and senseless manner is absolutely heartbreaking.”
Less than a year earlier, the same store was the scene of a murder-suicide involving a divorced couple.