A homeless woman who heard ‘voices in her head’ allegedly bought a knife and stabbed the mother of a 10-month-old baby in a department store in New York City.
Kerri Aherne, 43, was arrested and charged with attempted murder, endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of assault and the criminal possession of a weapon.
She is accused of having stabbed the mother, a 38-year-old tourist from California, at Macy’s Herald Square, the world’s largest department store, on Thursday at around 3.10pm.
The victim was allegedly attacked while she was changing her baby’s nappy in the bathroom.
Prosecutors claim Aherne went to the Macy’s bathroom on the seventh floor and stabbed the woman, causing the baby to drop from the changing table to the floor.
While her baby was not injured in the attack, the mother was repeatedly stabbed in her back, shoulder and arm and rushed to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
Aherne had been released from Manhattan Psychiatric Center the same morning of the day of the attack at the store.
She had just spent a year at the psychiatric centre.
Her erratic social media history included death threats to Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and incoherent posts lashing out at US President Donald Trump, according to prosecutors.
Paul Barker, the Manhattan Assistant District Attorney, said in court on Friday night: ‘She had purchased a knife at Macy’s and looked for someone to kill because voices in her head told her that she had to kill someone or else she would be killed.’
The alleged attack only stopped when the victim, whose identity has not been disclosed, managed to subdue Aherne with the help of her baby’s father.
The victim is a civilian employee with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, where her partner serves as a deputy.
Officials said Aherne was believed to be homeless and had never been arrested in New York before.
However she had previously been arrested in native Massachusetts in 2018 for posts online where she threatened to kill Warren.
Aherne also claimed she was planning on ‘getting a gun’ to shoot someone at a ‘local police station.’
It was not immediately clear exactly why or when Aherne had been admitted into the Manhattan Psychiatric Center.
Aherne was declared an incapacitated person in 2019, according to documents seen by The New York Post.
Her mother and sister were appointed as her guardians.
According to the records, a court also directed Aherne to remain on Prolixin – an antipsychotic medication for schizophrenia.
On Friday, Aherne was ordered to be held without bail – which she protested.
‘I don’t want to go to another hospital,’ she told the court, adding that her Manhattan psychiatric stay had not helped.
Her next court date is set for December 17. Aherne’s attorney plans to seek bail at a future hearing.
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