Man held on $100,000 bond after stabbing mother at Target
An arrest affidavit says the 21-year-old suspect told police he was told to kill his mother by a secret society.
By John Ferrari ·
Elijah Vriseno, 21, is being held on a $100,000 bond after Waco police arrested him for stabbing his mother in the neck inside a Target store. The arrest warrant affidavit states that Vriseno claimed the Illuminati instructed him to kill Ashley Norwood.
Police received a call around 2:22 p.m. on Sunday regarding a domestic disturbance and stabbing at the Target on the Waco campus. Officers arrived to find Norwood on the floor near a pool of blood. She had a stab wound on the left side of her neck and could not speak, so bystanders described the suspect’s clothing to the responding officers.
Store security footage showed the mother and son in the optical department. The video captured Vriseno stabbing Norwood with a knife before he ran out of the store. Norwood was transported to a hospital where she underwent surgery. Her daughter said she is in stable condition.
At approximately 4 p.m., Vriseno contacted police to say he had turned himself in. Officers located him at a Jack in the Box directly across the street from the Target. He was wearing the same clothes, including a blanket, that witnesses had identified earlier. The affidavit notes he appeared to be discarding the blanket and washing blood from his hands into a trash bin.
Vriseno’s sister called police while the search was underway. She reported that two days before the stabbing, Vriseno told her that the Illuminati told him to kill both his mother and sister. The Illuminati was a secret society established in 1776, though it is now primarily known through modern conspiracy theories.
After Vriseno was read his Miranda rights, an officer asked if the knife in his front left cargo pocket was the weapon used. Vriseno admitted it was. He faces one count of aggravated assault of a family member causing serious bodily injury.
Records show Vriseno was arrested earlier this year for allegedly assaulting his pregnant girlfriend. That incident was charged as a third-degree felony for the assault of a pregnant woman after an argument over a car part.
