An unhinged Queens man who viciously butchered his personal mom to dying used a machete throughout the bloody home assault, shoving the blade down her throat and into her liver, prosecutors mentioned Wednesday.
The horrifying particulars had been revealed as Armel Crawford, 26, was arraigned on homicide prices within the ugly Tuesday morning slashing dying of 61-year-old Joanne Crawford of their Far Rockaway residence, in response to police and prosecutors.
“The sufferer sustained 11 stab wounds,” Queens Assistant District Lawyer Lindsey Ruzza mentioned in court docket. “A stab wound to the stomach went by means of the liver and thru your entire physique. A knife was shoved down her throat which cut up her tongue in half and perforated the trachea.”
Police made the grisly discovery round 10:40 a.m. Tuesday — and later arrested Amel Crawford, however solely after he ran onto the seaside and into the water, a police supply instructed The Put up.
Ruzzo mentioned the accused killer then tried to make a run for it — by operating into the Rockaway surf.
“The defendant was taken into custody at Seashore 62nd Avenue and Rockaway Boardwalk, the place he had run into the water presumably to evade seize,” she mentioned.
Based on one police supply, the mad sprint “regarded like he was attempting to kill himself.”
He was arraigned Wednesday on prices of second-degree homicide and fourth-degree prison possession of a weapon and ordered held with out bail by Choose Sharifa Milena Nasser-Cuellar.
Joanne, a retired metropolis corrections officer, was discovered inside the house round 10:40 a.m. Tuesday and pronounced useless on the scene.
The mom and son had a tumultuous relationship, with police responding to home disturbance complaints on the residence, together with two earlier this yr — but neither turned violent, sources mentioned.
Amel Crawford, who has no prison file, had a strained relationship together with his mother due to her previous profession as a metropolis corrections officer, which one relative mentioned left her little time for mothering.
“He by no means was a troubled child exterior; he simply had issues together with her,” the accused killer’s cousin, Barry Crawford, instructed The Put up. “I feel his largest downside together with her is that she labored for corrections, she was a retired corrections officer, so she was by no means residence.
“He felt that she by no means gave him the standard time that he desired,” he mentioned.
The deadly stabbing shocked neighbors, a few of whom mentioned that they had seen Amel Crawford develop up.
“We’re all fairly shaken up,” one native who requested to not be recognized instructed The Put up. “That is extraordinarily surprising. We’re all simply attempting to course of what occurred. There are such a lot of tales going round however we don’t know what to consider.”
One other neighbor referred to as the household “good folks” who had been already residing on the block when he moved in 30 years in the past.
“I watched him develop up from somewhat boy,” a lady who knew the household mentioned. “We’re all in shock. My entire household, we’re in shock. I nonetheless can’t consider that is actual.”
Barry Crawford mentioned he began “pouring tears” after studying about Joanne’s dying and remembered her as a giving fixture of the neighborhood who was at all times there for her family members.
“Her father and my mom are brothers and sisters. We’ve been shut since we had been little youngsters. I’ll love her and miss her without end. I’ll by no means perceive this tragedy or what has occurred,” he mentioned.
“This tragedy won’t ever be understood by this household due to who she is. She did every little thing for everybody who got here involved together with her. Anybody who knew Joanne Crawford knew she was a loving particular person.”
