A 24-year-old woman accused of knifing a Bronx mother to death in their apartment building’s elevator was ordered held without bail on Friday at a bedside arraignment where she remained hospitalized, officials said.
Beyonce Johnson is facing murder, manslaughter and weapons possession charges for stabbing 30-year-old Shashamanie Thompson in the stomach and left eye inside the building on Ogden Ave. near W. 167th St. in Highbridge around 10 p.m. on Dec. 27.
A Bronx Criminal Court judge ordered her held without bail during the hospital bed arraignment.
Johnson was in an ongoing dispute with Thompson over the victim’s dog being left in the hallway, cops said.
Johnson’s boyfriend, 21-year-old Saleh Ceesay, who lives about 2 miles away, was arrested with her at the scene and is also facing murder and manslaughter charges.
“She keeps a dog in the hallway,” Johnson told cops after they were taken into custody, according to court documents. Residents had “snitched” on the victim to management about the situation, she added.
Though Thompson had eventually rehomed the dog, the long-running feud flared up again when she ran into Johnson and Ceesay in the lobby of their building, according to authorities.
After they all got into the elevator together, Johnson allegedly whipped a knife out of her purse and stabbed Thompson. Ceesay is accused of grabbing Thompson in a headlock and punching her as the slaying unfolded.
Thompson’s 9-year-old son was spending the holidays with his grandparents at the time of her murder.
“I picked him up the day before Christmas,” the victim’s father, Mark Thompson, told the Daily News. “New Year’s, we were going to spend over there with him and his mother. That was the intention.”
Mark, who created a GoFundMe to help support his grandson, remembered his daughter as a “lovely person” with a “good heart.”
“A strong person. She’s a fighter. She don’t give up,” he said. “I mean, for that to happen to her, it would have to take two people to do that to her.”
Ceesay was arraigned right away and ordered held without bail as Johnson, who’s bipolar, was taken to an area hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. She remained in the hospital following her arraignment.
Shashamanie, with her dying breaths, named the suspect’s apartment number, according to prosecutors, telling cops, “The girl in 6D did this.”
Johnson has two prior arrests, including for criminal contempt, harassment and violating an order of protection in November 2021. The victim in that case was a 19-year-old woman. In April 2018, Johnson was arrested for criminal mischief.
