BRONX—- A Bronx woman was stabbed to death in her boyfriend’s apartment during a domestic dispute as her mother and two sons cowered in fear in another room, police said Friday, the New York Daily News reported. The estranged couple were living apart, however, the victim, 23-year-old Zariah Hayes, returned to her boyfriend’s Holland Ave. apartment in Allerton just before 10:40 p.m. Thursday; with her mom and two children, 5 and 2, in tow.
Hayes and her boyfriend, Shaheene Ahmad, 35, went into another room and engaged in an argument that quickly escalated to violence, with Hayes stabbed numerous times in the neck, police recount. Ahmad was standing next to Hayes’ body when officers arrived, and was taken into custody, according to authorities. Medics rushed the fatally wounded woman to Jacobi Medical Center, where she was pronounced deceased; per the New York Daily News.
Ahmad was taken to Jacobi to be treated for a hand injury he suffered during the attack,a police source reveals. Police briefed, that Hayes’ mother and sons were taken to the same hospital to be evaluated, however, they were not physically harmed. It wasn’t clear what sparked the argument. The suspect’s sister said she called police, and tried to apply pressure to the wounds until help arrived. ”It’s very, very, very sad. It’s horrible. I wish this didn’t happen, but unfortunately it did. I’m greatly sorry,” said Ahmad’s sister, who asked that her name not be published,per the New York Daily News.
She called the slain woman her “sister-in-law,” and described her as a “beautiful young lady.” “She had a pleasant attitude,” the woman said. “She was very polite. She was beautiful. She was very helpful. She was very loving. She was caring. She was very giving. She loved everybody. It was nothing that you could ever ask her for and she would tell you ‘no.’ She was really a great person.” The sister of Ahmad said she didn’t know what sparked the dispute. “I don’t know what transpired, what happened,” the suspect’s sister said. “I just heard the chaos and when I came out, I saw what I saw. I tried my best to help. I tried to apply pressure. But apparently I guess it wasn’t enough. Honestly, I don’t know what to say. This is a very traumatic situation”; the New York Daily News reports.
Darryl Palmer, a friend of Ahmad, said there were signs the suspect acted abusively in the past, but not with the slain woman. “I’ve seen it with previous girlfriends,” Palmer said. “Years ago, maybe 10 years, eight years ago. It was a similar case. Kind of domestic violence. He’d get upset and put his hands on her. It wouldn’t be anything crazy to where we had to call the police. But he has a history of it. Not like this though. This is a total shock for me. I never expected it to get like this.” Neighbor David Sosa said he heard the screams. “I didn’t think anything much of it, because I thought maybe they are just having a fun night because at first it sounded like laughing, then it kind of got intense”, Sosa told. “Within two minutes my Citizen app went off saying someone had gotten stabbed. Sosa continued, “The screams were crazy. It was super loud. I had my TV on and I was watching TV and I had to pause it because it was louder than my TV ”; the New York Daily News reported.
