BALTIMORE, MD. (THECOUNT) — The husband and daughter of Jacquelyn Smith, the Baltimore woman fatally stabbed while supposedly giving money to a panhandler in Baltimore, have been arrested and charged with murder in her death Sunday, according to Maryland officials.
Smith, 52, was said to have been killed Dec. 1, 2018 while giving money to a person in need in Baltimore, but now police have announced the arrest her husband Keith Smith, and his daughter Valeria Smith, in Harlingen, Texas, near the Mexico border.
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The pair is charged with first-degree murder.
“It was not a panhandler,” an official said speaking to WBALTV on the case. “People took advantage of Baltimore.”
At the time of her killing, investigators said Jacquelyn was traveling in a vehicle when she noticed a woman holding a sign that read, “Please Help me feed my Baby.” Police said a man then approached the vehicle to thank Smith for giving money but proceeded to assault her and take her belongings. A struggle ensued and the man stabbed Smith and fled on foot with the female suspect. It is unknown if the baby was real or not.
It is unclear how the woman was in fact killed.
The mayor’s office released the following statement Sunday evening:
“Like everyone in our city, state and across this nation, we mourned the senseless killing of Jacquelyn Smith. To now learn that family members staged this brutal killing is beyond belief and represents a double tragedy. They were responsible for taking Jacquelyn’s life with unconscionable cruelty and contrived to do so in our city under the guise of random violence, exploiting the legitimate fears of our residents. I commend our homicide detectives for their expert and tireless work in bringing those truly responsible to justice in this very troubling and sad case.”
Geo quick facts: Harlingen is a city in Cameron County in the central region of the Rio Grande Valley of the southern part of the U.S. state of Texas, about 30 miles from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico – Wikipedia.