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

A three-year-old child was fatally stabbed and his mother injured in a random attack outside an Ohio grocery store that police believe was such an attack.

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

The suspect, Bionca Ellis, 32, of Cleveland, “acquired a butcher knife or some type of kitchen knife” at a Volunteers of America thrift store and then went to the Giant Eagle, Sergeant Matt Beck, a North Olmsted detective, said at a news conference.

Video footage from the grocery store showed Ellis seeing Margot Wood and her son and following them to the parking lot, Beck said.

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

Authorities performed life-saving measures on both mother and child, but the three-year-old succumbed to his injuries. Beck said the boy, who was sitting in the front seat of the shopping cart, was stabbed in the face and back, and Wood was stabbed in the shoulder.

It is unclear how Ellis got the knife and whether she paid for it, Beck told reporters.

The motive for the stabbings is also unclear. Beck said there was no argument in the grocery store before the attack.

“The video shows that they simply walked past each other,” he said. “Ms. Ellis turned around, looked at her and followed her out the door.”

He said it appeared to be a random attack and after speaking to the mother, it became clear to him that there was no connection between the two.

Ellis was arrested on a charge of aggravated murder. She had the knife on her person when she was taken into custody, Beck said.

Mayor Nicole Dailey Jones said she was “deeply saddened” by the incident.

“Our deepest sympathy goes out to the victims of this apparently random act of violence,” she said in a statement.

North Olmsted police had previously arrested Ellis on a petty theft charge at a Walmart. She was also arrested after a nonviolent crime in Florida, Beck said. He said there was nothing in her past to indicate “that she has violent tendencies.” It is not clear if she has an attorney.