Police in North Carolina have charged a 31-year-old man with first-degree murder after he allegedly killed his 5-year-old son in a domestic incident.
The suspect, Jehaaz-Akil Khaliq Echoles, was arrested at a nearby Taco Bell after the incident, which occurred at the Sabal Point Apartments in Pineville early Thursday morning.
According to the police, officers responded to the scene shortly after midnight after receiving a report of an assault with a deadly weapon. Upon arrival, they found the child with multiple stab wounds and immediately began rendering emergency medical care.
The child was rushed to the hospital in a patrol car, but was later pronounced dead. Echoles' ex-girlfriend, who is also the child's mother, said the man broke into the apartment, entered their son's room, and closed the door before fleeing the scene.
The woman and another child in the home were unharmed, but were shaken by the incident. Echoles has a previous criminal history of assault, including a conviction in North Carolina for assault on a woman in an October 2020 incident.
He has also been accused of two assaults on women this year, including one in which he allegedly beat a woman with a belt and another in which he threw keys at a woman after borrowing her car and refusing to return it.
Echoles is being held in the Mecklenburg County Jail without bond, and his next court date is scheduled for July 30.
