Police in the US are investigating the murder of a Kenyan nurse who was stabbed to death while at work by a patient she was attending to on Tuesday, October 18 in North Carolina, United States.
Reports indicate that June Onkundi was at work, attending to patients with mental health challenges when one of them stabbed her to death with a knife.
Police who were called to respond to an emergency at the Freedom House Recovery Center, based in Durham City in North Carolina found the lifeless body of the nurse.
Covering the sad news of her demise, ABC 11 TV described Onkundi as a “mother, wife, sister, cousin and a psychiatric nurse practitioner, Jane Onkundi was the epitome of love, taken too soon while doing exactly what she loved.”
The family of the deceased questioned the facility’s safety mechanism for its staff even as police investigate how the mentally-challenged patient was in possession of a knife which she used to end Onkundi’s life.
“I am confused because a place of work is supposed to provide safety mechanisms for the staff members to be safe just to make sure another family member does not go through the pain that we are going through today,” lamented Andrew Nyabwari, a brother-in-law to Onkundi.
“For us as family members, it is very painful we are saddened that the same very population she had the passion and desire to help is the one that finally took her away from us and left us now grieving with four children and a husband,” he added.
The suspect in the murder was identified as James Gomes, 47 who US media described as a “serial criminal who has been behind bars for more than half his life”.
“The suspect has a history of attacking women. Each time he gets out of prison, it’s a matter of mere months before he gets back behind bars again. Gomes was convicted in 2006 of attempted rape and kidnapping,” Reporter Sarah Kruger of WRAL TV explained, citing court records.