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A Bronx woman who stabbed her “childhood friend” repeatedly before cutting the pregnant woman’s baby from her womb told police she acted in self-defense, the NY Daily News reports.

The woman, 22-year-old Ashleigh Wade, is currently being held in the psychiatric ward facing murder charges. But friends and family of victim Angelikque Sutton are left to grapple with the 22-year-old’s death and questions about why her friend would attack her so violently. The women attended elementary school together and had recently rekindled their relationship.

According to the Daily News, Wade, who told estranged family she had a baby that died in 2014 shortly after being born, also said she was expecting a baby girl soon (her landlord told police she had no doubt in her mind the woman had been pregnant at some point). After her arrest, police said there was no proof she was actually pregnant. But that didn’t stop Wade, who police described as baby-obsessed, from carrying out the elaborate lie.

From the Daily News:

The Facebook page of the unhinged woman’s boyfriend, Angel Praylow, 27, who walked in on the bloody scene, offered a glimpse into Wade’s baby crazy ways.

Praylow had been posting pictures of baby clothes and sonograms on Facebook in recent months and Wade had registered for gifts at Babies “R” Us, claiming a due date of Nov. 16.

The sonograms appear to be lifted from an unrelated blog. “u stole my pic,” Wade even jokes under one image.

When her family inquired about the big day, Praylow wrote, “. . . today her due day but she not ready to come out yet.”

It’s not clear if the ruse led her to stab Sutton and cut the baby girl from her womb, but Wade told police she was acting in self-defense during Sutton’s Friday visit to the woman’s Wakefield apartment.

Wade claimed Sutton lunged at her with a knife, but she wrestled it away and jammed it into the pregnant woman’s neck. She then cut open Sutton’s stomach to save the unborn child, she told cops.

“She said she wanted to save the baby,” a police source with knowledge of the case said Saturday.

The baby girl, Genesis, survived the attack. Sutton died shortly after arriving at Montefiore Medical Center.

Wade was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon. This is the first time the 22-year-old woman has been arrested.

SOURCE: NY Daily News | VIDEO SOURCE: Inform

SEE ALSO:

Bronx Mother Of Three Arrested After Throwing Baby Out Of 6th Floor Window

Bronx Mother Who Allegedly Threw Newborn Out Of Building Being Probed For Previous Infant Death

Bronx Woman Who Stabbed Friend, Cut Baby From Womb Said She Acted In Self Defense  was originally published on newsone.com