Woman, 23, stabbed to death in bar brawl
Others injured during fightat tavern in West Toledo
1/2/2013
Christine Henderson, Toledo's first homicide victim of 2013, leaves behind her daughters Zyonna Bowen, 3, left, and Zaniayah Bowen, 1. They are with their grandmother Christine Bowen in Ms. Bowen's home in Toledo.
The Blade/Jetta Fraser
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A trail of blood leads from the South Beach Bar to the parking lot where Christina Henderson was found. Ms. Henderson was fatally stabbed early Tuesday. Toledo police report she was stabbed in the neck, left the bar, and was found in the back of the parking lot. She was taken to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, where she died. At least three others were injured.
Toledo ended 2012 with the shooting death of a college student and started the New Year early Tuesday morning with the stabbing death of a 23-year-old woman during a riotlike melee at a West Toledo bar.
Christina Henderson died early New Year’s Day of a stab wound in the neck that she suffered at South Beach Bar, 2114 W. Alexis Rd.
At least two other people were injured at the bar, police said.
Less than 12 hours earlier, Brian Minley, 24, was shot and killed in West Toledo inside a house at 1241 Berdan Ave. near Willys Parkway.
No arrests had been made in either death as of Tuesday night.
RELATED CONTENT: The Blade 2013 Homicide Database
Ms. Henderson was the mother of two girls, Zyonna, 3, and Zaniayah, 1.
Her boyfriend, Stacey Bowen, Jr., was also at the bar and was injured, said his mother, Christine Bowen.
“He was crying, asking me how he was going to tell his 3-year-old daughter that her mother was gone,” Ms. Bowen said while holding her two granddaughters at her home in Toledo.
Ms. Henderson, who wanted to become a nurse, was planning to marry her boyfriend, Ms. Bowen said.
Police arrived at the bar shortly before 2 a.m. and found several people fighting. While police officers were separating those who were fighting, they heard someone shouting that a person had been stabbed in the throat.
Ms. Henderson was found on the ground in the rear of the bar’s parking lot. She was taken to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center and was pronounced dead at 2:39 a.m.
Christine Henderson, Toledo's first homicide victim of 2013, leaves behind her daughters Zyonna Bowen, 3, left, and Zaniayah Bowen, 1. They are with their grandmother Christine Bowen in Ms. Bowen's home in Toledo.
Toledo police Sgt. Tim Noble said that when officers arrived “it was complete and utter chaos.”
Several fights were occurring at the same time, he said.
“Most of the witnesses said it was pretty orderly, and everyone was having a good time for New Year’s, before the fight broke out,” Sergeant Noble said. “It turned into a riot.”
A trail of blood led out of the bar to the rear of the parking lot where a large pool of blood could still be seen late Tuesday morning.
A woman who was at the bar during the incident, who identified herself only as Liz, said chairs were being thrown during the melee, and a large crowd was fighting. She said she saw a woman bleeding profusely inside the bar.
It was unclear how many other people were injured in addition to Mr. Bowen. Sergeant Noble said another woman was taken to Toledo Hospital with injuries from being trampled, and a man suffered a head injury.
While police were investigating the first homicide of 2013, they were still trying to determine who shot and killed Mr. Minley, the final murder victim of 2012 in Toledo.
He was pronounced dead at 3:15 p.m. at Toledo Hospital, said Steve Kahle, a Lucas County coroner’s investigator. An autopsy was scheduled for today, said Dr. Diane Scala-Barnett, a deputy coroner for the county.
Mr. Minley graduated from Scott High and studied psychology at the University of Toledo, he wrote on his Web site. He posted his music on the Web.
Toledo police Sgt. William Wauford said Mr. Minley was in critical condition when he was taken to the hospital with wounds that were “definitely not self-inflicted.”
Police would not say what the motive in the shooting might have been.
His slaying was the 39th homicide in the city of Toledo for 2012. It brought the number of homicides in metro Toledo during 2012 to 53.
Also in the early morning hours Tuesday, someone shot a man at the Sunoco gas station at Byrne Road and Hill Avenue in southwest Toledo, Sergeant Noble said.
He identified the victim as Joseph Jerrell, who was shot in the abdomen. His condition was not available. The shooter in that case remained at large.
Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com or 419-724-6171.