The victim was perusing the produce aisle mid-morning on Saturday in a ShopRite grocery store in New Windsor, New York, about 60 miles north of New York City.
Behind him, a quiet assailant calmly approached.
He brandished a folding box cutter knife in his hand, reported the Times Herald-Record, and without warning or struggle, he slit the victim’s throat.
Then as quietly as he came, the assailant disappeared, camouflaged amid the crowds of weekend shoppers. He remained there for 45 minutes, according to police, while medics rushed the unconscious, bleeding victim to a nearby hospital where he died and while authorities searched for his attacker.
After reviewing surveillance footage and identifying the man with the knife, the New Windsor Police Department and store officials at ShopRite found the assailant in the crowd.
Police identified him as Andrew Goodenough, a 35-year-old resident of Highland Falls, another small town nestled along the the Hudson River, and charged him with second-degree murder.
As details unfolded about the grisly crime that wreaked havoc inside a popular area grocery store, it was actually the lack of information that seemed most haunting. There was no altercation before the stabbing, officials told CBS New York, and there was no apparent connection between the two men.
Police described the stabbing as a random attack amid a sea of 250 shoppers, reported the Herald-Record.
Police were waiting to release the victim’s name until they notified his family. They gave only his age, 35.
On social media, frequent shoppers at the supermarket expressed their shock and horror. “What the hell?!?!?” one woman wrote on Facebook. “What’s wrong with this world,” another person tweeted. “I’m not leaving my house anymore,” wrote another.
A name for Goodenough’s attorney wasn’t immediately available, reported the Associated Press, but neighbors described the man to CBS New York as troubled and “unstable.”
According to the Herald-Record, Goodenough had never before been charged with a crime, but he was known to police. On multiple occasions in the past, officers had asked him to leave areas around town after he acted suspiciously.
ShopRite released a statement to customers after the bloody crime, reported CBS New York:
“We can confirm that an unfortunate incident took place this morning at our store. The store will remain closed for the rest of the day while police conduct a thorough investigation. While we can’t discuss the ongoing investigation, we are working with the police and reaching out to all of our associates. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those involved.”
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Katie Mettler
