A routine trip to the grocery store turned into a horror movie after a woman allegedly attacked a mother and her 3-year-old son with a kitchen knife, leaving the toddler with fatal injuries.
North Olmsted police said the incident occurred just after 3 p.m. Monday in the parking lot of the Giant Eagle located on Lorain Road. Margot Wood had rolled her son, Julian, in the shopping cart to their car when they were approached by 32-year-old Bionca Ellis, per The AP’s report. Prosecutors say Ellis was armed with two kitchen knives she stole from a thrift store nearby and followed the mother-son duo into the lot.
Police say Ellis stabbed the boy twice as he sat in the cart and attacked his mother as she tried to lift him out of the seat before running away. Police said they located Ellis with the bloodied knife in hand a short distance from the scene of the crime. The report says the boy was transferred to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The motive for the alleged stabbing is still unknown as it does not appear Ellis knew Mrs. Wood and her son personally. The most we know is that the suspect may have been unhoused at the time of the incident.
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Court records show that Ellis was in the process of being evicted from her subsidized apartment building in Cleveland at the time of the stabbing. Lawyers for the real estate company K&D filed a complaint in Cleveland Housing Court in March seeking permission to remove her from the apartment after she missed three rent payments, according to the court records.
A Cleveland housing court magistrate granted the request last month. K&D also evicted Ellis from a different location in 2018, according to court records.
A Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Ellis on aggravated murder, attempted murder, felonious assault, endangering children, theft and tampering with evidence. She’s being held on a $1 million bond.
Wood is expected to make a full recovery from her injuries. A GoFundMe in support of the family has raised over $180,000 in donations.