A former Broadway little one star who “had her complete life forward of her” was stabbed to loss of life by her boyfriend in a New Jersey residence over the weekend, in keeping with officers and the sufferer’s devastated household.
Imani Smith, 26 — who performed Younger Nala within the hit musical “The Lion King” between 2011 and 2012 — was senselessly butchered by beau Jordan D Jackson Small on Sunday, Middlesex County authorities and her kin alleged.
Police had been known as to the Edison residence on Grove Avenue round 9:18 a.m., the place they discovered Smith with a number of stab wounds. The younger mother was rushed to a neighborhood hospital, the place she succumbed to her accidents.
Jackson Small, 35, was arrested and charged with homicide, endangering the welfare of a kid and weapons possession, prosecutors mentioned.
He’s being held on the Middlesex County Grownup Correctional Heart earlier than he seems in entrance of a choose, in keeping with officers.
Smith’s grieving household was left reeling simply days earlier than Christmas, they mentioned on a heartbreaking GoFundMe web page.
“Imani had her complete life forward of her. She was vivacious, loving and a fiercely proficient particular person,” her aunt, Kira Helper, wrote.
“A real triple-threat performer, she most notably performed the position of Younger Nala on Broadway in Disney’s Lion King — an expertise that mirrored the enjoyment, creativity, and lightweight she put into the world.”
Small leaves behind a 3-year-old son who will now be raised by her grief-stricken mother and father, Helper mentioned.
They “are actually dealing with the unimaginable: grieving their daughter whereas stepping in to lift her younger son and help their two kids throughout this traumatic time.”
