Walmart employee fatally stabbed in random attack by man who allegedly believed victim was a 'demon': police
A Walmart employee was fatally stabbed during a late-night shift in a seemingly random attack, and the man told police he believed he was killing a "demon" that had been stalking him.
Officers were dispatched at about 10:58 p.m. Tuesday to reports of a man stabbing a female employee inside the Walmart Supercenter on U.S. 65, the Conway Police Department said.
Officers arrived within roughly a minute and encountered the suspect, later identified as 37-year-old Zeddrick Ross, still armed with a knife.
Police said officers issued multiple commands for the man to drop the weapon, but he refused and advanced toward an officer. One officer fired a single shot that missed the suspect, and a second officer deployed a Taser.
The victim, identified by police as 32-year-old Jordanne Drinkwater, was given emergency aid by officers and medical personnel but died at the scene.
Ross was then taken into custody and was booked into the Faulkner County Detention Center. Police said that no one else was injured.
Investigators said Ross was not employed by Walmart, did not know Drinkwater and had no known interaction with her prior to the attack, in what police described as an apparently random act of violence. The investigation remains ongoing.
According to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which cited a police affidavit, Ross told a detective he had been pursued by what he described as a "demon" and armed himself with a knife for protection.
The newspaper reported that Ross said he believed he was confronting that figure when he stabbed Drinkwater multiple times, later telling investigators he realized she did not resemble the person he thought had been following him.
The affidavit revealed that Ross told police he had stolen the knife earlier and had gone to the store intending to obtain another weapon.
An officer who discharged a firearm during the encounter has been placed on administrative leave, a routine step following an officer-involved shooting, the department said.
Drinkwater, who went affectionately as Puff to friends, was described as an "amazing human being." Sam Slaughter, who knew Drinkwater for nearly 10 years, told KATV that she heard the news of her friend’s death when another friend texted her.
"I called him and I said, ‘You’re kidding. It's not—not, not Jordan, not Puff, right? Like, that’s not Puff, right?’ And the world stopped," Slaughter told the outlet.
"I never met somebody as, as, as pure as Jordan. It was just I don’t—I didn’t understand. I still don’t understand why it had to be her. She helped change my entire life for the better—everything from staying sober to the way I think about the world and how it works and not putting more hate into it and just trying to do better. She was an amazing human being. She’s going to be so, so missed."