Inset: Jehaaz-Akil Khaliq Echoles (Mecklenburg County Jail). Background: Apartment complex in Pineville, N.C., where Echoles allegedly killed his 5-year-old son (WBTV).
A North Carolina man is accused of kicking down his ex-girlfriend's apartment door before he ran into a bedroom where he repeatedly stabbed his 5-year-old son, killing him.
Jehaaz-Akil Khaliq Echoles, 31, is charged with first-degree murder, the Pineville Police Department said. Cops responded shortly after midnight Thursday to the Sabal Point Apartments for an assault with a deadly weapon. When they arrived, they found the victim with multiple stab wounds.
Cops placed the boy in their patrol vehicle and rushed him to the hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. The victim's mother said Echoles, her ex-boyfriend and the boy's father, broke into the apartment and entered his son's room, according to an arrest affidavit. She heard a "commotion" and opened the door.
Echoles ran out of the room and out of the apartment and she saw the boy bleeding and unresponsive. She called 911.
The suspect stabbed his son with "some type of edged weapon," cops say. The boy, who has not been identified, suffered several stab wounds on his neck, head and arms.
Police tracked Echoles down about a mile away at a Taco Bell and arrested him. A motive has not been released.
Neighbors were stunned by the events.
"Just to wake up and see this had happened it's just unsettling and heartbreaking," one neighbor told local ABC affiliate WSOC. "My heart goes out to the family."
This is not Echoles' first time in custody at the Mecklenburg County Jail. He has seven different mugshots on the jail website since 2023, including two from earlier this year for allegedly assaulting women.
In one case, he beat a woman with a belt, while in the other, he threw keys at a woman after he borrowed her car and refused to give it back, arrest affidavits say.
Echoles remains in jail without bond. His next court date is set for July 30.