Insets: Shelaya Broadwater (Shelaya Broadwater/Facebook) and Rondale Dickerson (Howard County Police). Background: Apartment in Ellicott City, Maryland, where Dickerson allegedly killed Broadwater (WBAL/YouTube).
Cops in Maryland say a 34-year-old man stabbed his fiancee to death just a week after they decided they were going to tie the knot in what authorities called a “really sad domestic incident.”
Rondale Dickerson is accused of killing 44-year-old Shelaya Broadwater at her apartment in Ellicott City, a Baltimore suburb, according to the Howard County Police Department. Police rushed to an apartment around 3 p.m. Thursday in the 3100 block of West Springs Drive. Officers entered and discovered Broadwater dead with multiple stab wounds.
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Dickerson faces charges of first- and second-degree murder, assault and home invasion. Local NBC affiliate WBAL obtained a criminal complaint that alleged Dickerson showed up at Broadwater”s apartment around 5 a.m. that Thursday and started banging on the door. He left after no one answered.
Authorities alleged Dickerson returned and stabbed his fiancee to death before fleeing. Cops noted there were no signs of forced entry at the home.
A relative of Broadwater’s found her body and called 911.
“This looks like a really sad domestic incident. We’re not certain what the motive is at this point whether if it was something ongoing or something happened in the spur of the moment,” Seth Hoffman, Howard County Police spokesperson, told WBAL.
Not long after cops found Broadwater’s body, they received a call about a suspicious person at a nearby Walmart. It turned out to be Dickerson, and cops took him into custody.
Dickerson is being held at the Howard County Jail without bond. His next court date is scheduled for Oct. 22.
