BECKLEY, W.Va. — West Virginia police arrested a man they believe stabbed a woman and savagely beat her 7-year-old son to death with a hammer.
Beckley police responded to a reported stabbing around 2:45 a.m. Thursday morning to find a woman bleeding out at her neighbor’s house.
Officers then found a 7-year-old boy in the residence next door and the apartment in disarray, according to a criminal complaint.
Rashad Akheem Thompson, 34, was at the scene, and police took him into custody as the primary suspect, WCHS reported.
Thompson reportedly told police he “just lost it.”
A neighbor told police she had been awakened when Felicia Brown banged on her door early Thursday. When she opened, she found Brown, 24, with a bleeding face. Brown began begging the neighbor to go with her to her apartment to get her seven-year-old and two-year-old children.
The neighbor went inside Brown’s apartment and grabbed the two year old. She saw Thompson walking towards the kitchen, so she carried the toddler back to her own home and left the child with Brown. She then went back to Brown’s apartment to get Brown’s son.
When she walked inside, she told police, she saw Thompson violently striking the sofa with an object, but she could not tell what the object was. She ran away but returned to Brown’s place once Thompson had been arrested, The Register-Herald.
UPDATE:
March 19, 2021 at 3:00 p.m.“Detectives are now prepared to release the identities of the victims in this…
Posted by Beckley Police Department on Thursday, March 18, 2021
Police reported in the complaint that they entered Brown’s home and found a hammer on her living room floor. It appeared to be covered with blood.
The body of a seven-year-old boy was on the couch, with extreme trauma to the left side of his head. Detectives believe the little boy was beaten repeatedly with the hammer.
Police did not disclose the relationship of the victims to Thompson, but a police spokesperson confirmed to Fox News that the victims were mother and son. Additional reports claim that the mother and Thompson were dating.
Brown was in critical condition when taken to the hospital.
It is unclear if Thompson was living at the residence, according to The Register-Herald.
Thompson is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death, malicious wounding and two counts of domestic battery.
He is being held at the Southern Regional Jail, where he is awaiting arraignment.
