A 19-year-old Peoria, Ill., woman who was at the wrong place at the wrong time, was killed while watching a violent melee in a park spurred by two women fighting over a guy.
Charee Alexander received a fatal stab wound during the melee and taken off of life support last Friday, according to police. She was a bystander watching two women caught up in a love triangle, plus a group of their friends, fight when she became a victim and suffered a traumatic neck injury, police told The Peoria Journal Star.
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“The argument was over a boyfriend,” Amy Dotson, spokeswoman for Peoria police, told The Journal Star. “That’s what the entire situation is over.”
Detectives are still combing through the incident, but on Tuesday arrested Jatara N. Johnson, 29, who turned herself in to police and was booked on charges of first degree murder in Alexander’s death and aggravated battery for stabbing a teenaged boy, according to the Journal Star.
Police are also investigating whether the Facebook game Profoundly.me, which allows players to answer questions anonymously with their FB friends, played a role in the fight.
It was unclear what made Johnson allegedly stab Alexander or the teenaged boy since none of the three were involved in the initial fight.
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“We’re not yet sure of the relationships,” Dotson told the newspaper.
Police did say that the two women who were fighting over the guy, whom police have not identified, had confrontations on other occasions. Last week, however, their animosity reached a hilt at Peoria’s Schmoeger Park. Police are currently reviewing text messages between the two and their interactions across social media.
“It looks like they intended to fight,” Dotson said.
When they got to the park, 20 other people came as well – including friends of each of the women. While the women fought, so did their friends, Dotson said.
Johnson allegedly brought a knife which is allegedly the weapon that killed Alexander, Dotson added. It is still unclear if the stabbing was accidental or intentional.
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