Broadway performer Imani Dia Smith stabbed to death in New Jersey

Former Broadway performer Imani Dia Smith was stabbed to dying in New Jersey over the weekend and her boyfriend has since been arrested and charged in connection along with her homicide.

Smith, who performed Younger Nala within the Broadway manufacturing of “The Lion King,” was discovered on Dec. 21 with a number of stab wounds. Officers say she was transported to Robert Wooden Johnson College Hospital, the place she was later pronounced lifeless. She was 26 years previous.

FLORIDA MAN KILLS WOMAN, SHOTS DOG’S DAUGHTER OVER NFL GAME ARGUMENT BEFORE TURNING OWN LIFE

The outside of the Minskoff Theater displaying the illuminated musical The Lion King on Broadway, New York Metropolis on October 21, 2024. (Smith Assortment/Gado/Getty Photographs)

Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Chief Thomas Bryan of the Edison Police Division issued a warrant joint announcement on Dec. 23, saying a person had been arrested and charged in reference to the homicide. They recognized the individual as 35-year-old Jordan D. Jackson-Small. Whereas the official assertion didn’t say that Jackson-Small was Smith’s boyfriend, it did be aware that the 2 “knew one another previous to the incident” and subsequently it was “not a random act of violence.”

Jackson-Small has been charged with first-degree homicide, second-degree endangering the welfare of a kid, third-degree possession of a weapon for an illegal goal and fourth-degree illegal possession of a weapon.

The solid of ‘The Lion King’ in the course of the Broadway reopening on the Minksoff Theater on September 14, 2021 in New York Metropolis. (Jenny Anderson/Getty Photographs)

See also  No retrial for ex-police officer Schurr in death of Lyoya

MOTHER ARRESTED ON SUSPECTION OF MISSING DAUGHTER IN CALIFORNIA

Smith’s household arrange a GoFundMe web page in her honor, which has raised greater than $65,000, surpassing the unique purpose of $50,000. The cash raised will assist the household cowl funeral and memorial prices, crime scene cleanup at Imani’s residence, trauma remedy for Imani’s son, siblings and fogeys, day off from work to grieve, present care and attend authorized proceedings, authorized and administrative prices, in addition to continued assist for Imani’s son and look after her beloved canine, Kuro.

Josh Tower as Simba within the Broadway musical “The Lion King” performs for tour and journey firms on the 2005 PowWow Conference on the Javits Heart in New York. (Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis by way of Getty Photographs)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Smith is survived by her three-year-old son, mother and father, two youthful siblings and “an prolonged household, associates and neighborhood who beloved her a lot,” in response to the GoFundMe.

“Imani had her complete life forward of her. She was a vibrant, loving and immensely gifted individual. She was a real triple menace performer, most notably enjoying the position of Younger Nala on Broadway in Disney’s Lion King – an expertise that mirrored the enjoyment, creativity and light-weight she introduced into the world,” the GoFundMe mentioned.