3 dead in stabbing attack: Man questioned

Neighbours hold hands in prayer after three people were killed and several others injured in a stabbing at a house in Newark. Picture: Robert Sciarrino/NJ Advance Media for NJ.com via AP

Neighbours hold hands in prayer after three people were killed and several others injured in a stabbing at a house in Newark. Picture: Robert Sciarrino/NJ Advance Media for NJ.com via AP

Published Nov 7, 2016

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Newark, New Jersey - Authorities have located a New Jersey man wanted in connection with a weekend knife attack at a Newark home that left two children and a woman dead.

Officials said late on Sunday night that they had found and were questioning 26-year-old Jeremy Arrington, identified by police as a "person of interest" in the Saturday afternoon attack that also left three people wounded.

A possible motive for the attack has not been disclosed.

Arrington has not been charged in the stabbings, but is also wanted on charges of sexual assault and aggravated assault for an unrelated incident on October 9, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray said at a news conference after the stabbings.

Prosecutors on Sunday released the names of the three who were killed. They said 8-year-old Aerial Little Whitehurst and 11-year-old Al-Jahon Whitehurst both died at a hospital shortly after the attack. A county spokesman said the two Newark children are related, but he declined further comment. The Daily Mail reports that the woman was named as 23-year-old Syasia McBurroughs.

The three injured - a 29-year-old woman, a 13-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl - remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Saturday called the attack "one of the most tragic and savage" he's seen. The mayor pleaded for anyone with information to come forward, NJ.com reported.

"We have to get him immediately before he hurts someone else," he said. "As long as he's on the street, nobody is safe."

Police offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

AP

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