NEWARK, N.J.—A man who entered a home and stabbed six people, killing three of them, might have been angry that one of the victims had reposted a Facebook alert from police naming him as a suspect in a shooting and sexual assault, authorities said Monday.
Jeremy Arrington, 26, faces three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder, among other charges, stemming from an attack Saturday at a home in Newark. His bail was set Monday at $5 million. It wasn’t clear if he had an attorney.
Killed in the attacks were 8-year-old Aerial Little Whitehurst and 11-year-old Al-Jahon Whitehurst, both of Newark, and 23-year-old college student Syasia McBurroughs, of Hanover Township. The children were sister and brother; McBurroughs was not related to them and was visiting the family, authorities said.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said at a news conference that Arrington went to the home and apparently encountered nine people. He stabbed six there over the course of about an hour, Murray said, but two other children and an adult escaped without injury. The home where the attacks occurred is owned by the grandmother of the two children who were killed.
Arrington had known the family that lived in the home for a long time, Murray said, though further details were not disclosed.
Newark authorities had announced last month that Arrington was wanted in connection with a shooting and sexual assault. Murray said one of the stabbing victims reposted that alert on Facebook, which was apparently part of the motive behind the stabbings.
Arrington was free on bail on an unrelated assault charge when the stabbings occurred, Murray said.
Arrington was taken into custody late Sunday after barricading himself inside a friend’s home in Newark. He eventually surrendered after negotiating with police.
Authorities had initially identified Arrington as a “person of interest” in the attacks, which also left the children’s mother and her 13-year-old twin siblings—a boy and a girl—seriously injured. All three remain hospitalized in critical but stable condition.
