Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman’s step-granddaughter was stabbed 16 times in Manhattan Sunday, according to police officials and his publicist.
Edena Hines, 33, was slain on West 162nd Street and St. Nicholas Avenue near her Washington Heights apartment shortly before 3 a.m. Lamar Davenport, 30, was arrested Sunday night.
Davenport, her live-in boyfriend, was screaming Bible verses and standing over her body when police arrived at the scene, according to officials. The knife was sticking out of her chest.
Medics rushed Hines to Harlem Hospital, but she could not be revived. She was pronounced dead at the hospital. Cops took Davenport into custody and he was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.
A witness said the man was trying to exorcise her of demons, reports said. Police had never responded to the couple’s home in the past.
“The world will never know her artistry and talent, and how much she had to offer,” Freeman said in a statement. “Her friends and family were fortunate enough to have known what she meant as a person. Her star will continue to shine bright in our hearts, thoughts and prayers. May she rest in peace.”
Hines was an actress who recently filmed an independent movie called “Landing Up” in Bushwick, and had recently moved back to New York from Memphis. She wrote on her blog that returning to New York to film the movie was a dream come true.
The grieving cast was stunned by her death. “We’re just in shock. We’re in total grief,” said actress and screenwriter Stacey Maltin, 30, who wrote the script of the movie. “We really just can’t believe that anyone would want to do this to her, that she was taken from the world in this way.”
Maltin said she saw Hines on Thursday to talk about different writing ideas and projects. “She’s so talented, so genuine, and in the moment, raw,” she said. “She just gave everything when she was on set. She was never half there, she was always all there.”
Hines studied at New York University’s Graduate Acting Program, and had served on the board of a literary arts foundation called SonEdna, its website says.
