3-year-old fatally stabbed, mother injured in random attack outside Ohio grocery store

A 3-year-old child was fatally stabbed and his mother injured in what police say was a random attack outside a grocery store in Ohio.

The stabbings happened Monday around 3 p.m. in the parking lot of a Giant Eagle in North Olmsted, about 20 miles southwest of Cleveland.

The suspect, Bionca Ellis, 32, of Cleveland, “obtained a butcher knife or some type of kitchen knife” at a Volunteers of America thrift store, then walked toward the Giant Eagle, Sgt. Matt Beck, a North Olmsted police detective, said at a news conference.

Video footage inside the grocery store showed Ellis saw Margot Wood and her son and followed them to the parking lot, Beck said.

“Somewhere near their vehicle, Ms Ellis then attacked them both,” he said.

Authorities took action to save the lives of the mother and child, but the 3-year-old died from his injuries. Beck said the boy, who was in the front seat of the shopping cart, was stabbed in the face and back and Wood in the shoulder.

It's unclear how Ellis obtained the knife or whether she paid for it, Beck told reporters.

The motive for the stabbings is also unclear. Beck said there were no altercations inside the grocery store before the attack.

“The video showed they had just passed each other,” he said. “Ms. Ellis turned around, looked at her and followed her to the door.”

He said it appeared to be a random attack and after speaking to the mother there appeared to be no connection between them.

Ellis was arrested for aggravated murder. She was carrying the knife when she was taken into custody, Beck said.

Mayor Nicole Dailey Jones said she was “deeply saddened” by what happened.

“Our hearts go out to the victims of what appears to be a random act of violence,” she said in a statement.

North Olmsted police previously arrested Ellis on an allegation of petty theft at a Walmart. She was also arrested following a nonviolent crime in Florida, Beck said. He added that nothing in her past suggested “she had violent tendencies”. It is unclear whether she has obtained an attorney.