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Cops ID woman who fatally slit Bronx mom’s throat in brawl outside illegal club


Police have identified the woman who fatally slit a mother’s throat during a brawl on a Bronx street between partygoers who had just been kicked out of an illegal after-hours club, cops said Tuesday.

Authorities are searching for 32-year-old Jalessa Richardson in the June 1 death of Ashley Smith, 37.

Both Richardson and Smith were partying at the makeshift club, which was operating out of a homeowner’s garages on Oakley St. near E. 219th St. in Highbridge, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a news briefing Tuesday.

Ashley Smith (GoFundMe)

GoFundMe

Ashley Smith (GoFundMe)

Smith went to the club with three friends, one of whom was knocked to the ground during an argument, Kenny said.

After the scuffle, the owner of the garages directed the bouncer to kick all 40 of the attendants out onto the street just before 6:10 a.m., he added.

Once on the street, a fight broke out among the large group, and Smith was slashed.

Ashley Smith was pronounced dead at Jacobi Hospital after she was stabbed in the neck at 1418 Oakley Street in the Bronx on Saturday June 1, 2024. 1323. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
Bracelets are pictured on the ground where Ashley Smith was slashed in the neck on Oakley St. in the Bronx on Saturday. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)

Medics rushed her to Jacobi Medical Center, where she died a short time later, police said.

Richardson fled the scene after the slashing, cops said.

Ashley Smith was pronounced dead at Jacobi Hospital after she was stabbed in the neck at 1418 Oakley Street in the Bronx on Saturday June 1, 2024. 1323. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
Blood is pictured on the ground where Ashley Smith was slashed in the neck. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)

Smith, who grew up in Yonkers, was just days from moving out of a Bronx shelter into her own apartment, her grieving mother previously told the Daily News.

She had two sons, ages 21 and 14, and a 9-year-old daughter. Her oldest son and his girlfriend were expecting their own child when the grandmother-to-be was killed.

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Front page for June 10, 2024: Melee outside illegal bash in Bronx leaves ma of 3 who faced new beginning dead. Ashley Smith had a job and was leaving shelter for new apartment when her throat was slit, leaving her the only fatality in a pointless scrap.

New York Daily News

Front page of the New York Daily News for Monday.

“I just can’t understand why everybody else is alive and my daughter’s dead,” Smith’s mother Monique Smith said after the slaying. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t understand it. Why is she the only one that’s gone if there were that many people fighting?”

Cops are still searching for Richardson, whose last known address is in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx.

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