bellinghamherald.com

Man tries to stab his mom with BBQ fork, then uses it to kill stranger, Florida cops say

A man armed with a barbecue fork approached a stranger riding his bike and stabbed him to death while yelling “die” over and over, according to witnesses and Florida law enforcement.

Now, 29-year-old Roosevelt Johnson is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, Palm Beach County records show.

Johnson is accused of first attacking his mother at an apartment with the fork, but it got caught in her sweater, saving her from getting stabbed, officers with the Riviera Beach Police Department wrote in a probable cause affidavit Dec. 9.

Johnson went after his cousin next, but she barricaded herself in the bathroom until he stormed out of the apartment, police said.

Then Johnson went up to the first person he saw — a man riding his bike — and started stabbing him repeatedly, later telling police he didn’t know the man.

He said, “I just hit him. I just started hitting him,” police said in the affidavit.

Witnesses recounted seeing two men engaged in a fight in the street, with one yelling “DIE! DIE! DIE!” while stabbing the other, according to police.

When Johnson was done, witnesses said he walked across the street and smoked a cigarette at a bus stop, where police found him. They said he had blood on his hands and was sitting next to a bloody BBQ fork on the bench.

Witnesses tried to help the stabbing victim, but he died at a hospital, police said. Law enforcement couldn’t immediately identify him Dec. 9, and he was classified as a John Doe for the time being.

Riviera Beach is about an 80-mile drive north from Miami.