A 22-year-old Bronx woman was charged with murder Saturday, accused of fatally stabbing a pregnant friend and cutting the baby out of her body, police said.
Angelikque Sutton was 12 days away from her due date when she was stabbed to death on Friday in the Bronx, sources said. Her baby girl survived and was taken to a local hospital.
Police arriving at the scene in the Wakefield neighborhood of the Bronx found three adults with a newborn baby that was wrapped in a jacket. The group directed police to a woman sitting on a staircase steps away, who told the officers that she had just killed someone and stabbed her as many times as she could, sources said.
The woman, Ashleigh Wade, initially claimed that she had just given birth and requested medical attention, according to the sources.
When officers climbed to the second floor, they found Sutton face up in the bedroom, with a number of stab wounds to the neck and a cut across her stomach.
Wade later told investigators that she had attacked Sutton in self-defense when the very pregnant woman came at her with a knife, sources said. The two were friends in fifth grade who had recently reconnected on Facebook and had met for lunch and gone shopping for baby products together, she told investigators.
On Friday, Wade claimed, they got into a fight about the past and Sutton attacked her. Wade said she grabbed the knife away from Sutton and began stabbing her. It was only after she realized the pregnant woman was dead that she cut her open to try to save the baby, she said, according to sources.
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Police took Wade into custody and charged her Saturday with two counts of murder, three counts of manslaughter and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
It wasn't immediately clear if she has a lawyer who could comment on the incident.
Sutton was living with her parents and at least one sibling, neighbors said. He father is co-pastor at a Bronx church, they said.
"It's so sad because they're a nice family," said Andrea Ragland, a neighbor. They're very friendly."
