The Ohio woman who was arrested on June 3 for fatally stabbing a 3-year-old boy in a Giant Eagle grocery store parking lot had been released from jail just three days earlier despite a magistrate raising concerns about her mental well-being.
Bionca Ellis, 32, of Cleveland was arrested on June 3 after she attacked Margo Wood and her 3-year-old son Julian, injuring the mother and fatally killing the child, in the parking lot of the North Olmsted Giant Eagle.
According to North Olmsted Police Detective Matt Beck, Ellis spotted Wood and her son while inside the grocery store and followed them outside into the parking lot. When Wood was about to put her groceries into her vehicle, Ellis rushed at them, stabbing both mother and child.
Officers arrested Ellis as she was walking away from the parking lot still carrying the knife in her hands. She is currently being held on an aggravated murder charge.
Wood and her son were transported to a nearby hospital where the boy was later pronounced dead. Margo Wood’s injuries were not life-threatening, Sgt. Beck said.
North Olmsted Police said the attack was random and Ellis had no prior interaction with either Margo Wood or the child.
According to the local Fox News channel, in late May, police arrested Ellis on an outstanding warrant for violating probation in a previous theft case.
Court records show that after her arrest, a Rocky River Municipal Court magistrate had referred Ellis for a mental health evaluation. However, the evaluation never happened.
Instead, on Friday, May 31, a judge released Ellis.
When asked why Ellis did not undergo a mental evaluation before her release, Rocky River Judge Brian Hagan told Fox 8 that no one from the organization that handles evaluations for the court was available.
Hagan added that Ellis would have had to wait in jail until someone was available for what was a very minor charge.
The judge insisted that at the time of the hearing, there were no “red flags shooting up that pole” or any “signs of mental distress.”
Hagan added that Ellis had no history of violence.
