CONROE, Texas (KTRK) — The Conroe Police Department said it is now looking into every possibility for the motive behind a violent and deadly stabbing on Saturday afternoon.
Miles Joseph Fridrich, 24, is accused of stabbing a pediatrician to death in broad daylight, while she was sitting at a picnic table in her apartment complex.
Neighbors living at the Alys Apartments on Mansions View Drive reported screaming coming near the picnic table by the dog park at about 12:30 p.m.
“That alerted a lot of people. I grabbed my phone and my sword, which is the only weapon I have and I ran outside. I saw the person checking her pulse to make sure she was alive and then stabbed her again. I yelled at him, he turned around, saw me, and ran,” Matthew Amador, a witness and neighbor, said.
Conroe police said Fridrich was caught just a short distance from the scene, largely due to witnesses describing his appearance and the direction he fled. He made his preliminary court appearance on Sunday. The judge set his bond at $500,000.
“Whatever it was, it was just something super evil,” Amador said. “I’m a little taken aback now, worried for my family, and going out safely. Just because this is something that doesn’t normally happen in a neighborhood like this. It has been horrific for all of us.”
Witnesses worry this could be an act of hate. Family members of the victim, Dr. Talat Jehan Khan, 52, said they don’t recognize Fridrich. Investigators told ABC13 they are looking into every possibility for the motive, including a hate crime, but noted this could have also been a completely random act of violence.
In the meantime, the Al-Ansaar Islamic Center in the Woodlands, the mosque that Khan attended, is ramping up their security on the weekend as a precautionary measure.
“The community is anxious and they want to know what happened. We don’t know if it was a hate crime or if there was some crazy person doing something bad. So, we hope that there’s more clarity and things will go back to normal,” Mohammed Ayubi, the center’s associate director, said.
