WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Morgan Freeman's granddaughter was fatally stabbed in the street by her boyfriend as he screamed "I f---ing love God!" during a deranged exorcism Sunday morning, sources and neighbors said.
Edena Hines, a 33-year-old actress who appeared in Freeman's recent movie "Five Flights Up," was stabbed in the torso multiple times by Lamar Davenport, 30, on West 162nd Street, near St. Nicholas Avenue, about 2:54 a.m., NYPD officials said.
"He was dragging her by the hair and stood over her thrusting with two hands," said neighbor Robert Cunningham, 28.
"She kind of twitched, but he continued to stab her after she stopped moving," Cunningham said.
"After she died, he really started going off, saying, 'I f---ing love God! Jesus Christ is my lord! I'm getting the demons out of her!' He just kept talking about how he got the demons out," he added.
When police arrived at the scene, Davenport, who sources said takes two kinds of anti-depressant medication, was standing over Hines' body, screaming and acting erratically, an NYPD spokesman said.
"He was screaming manically. He was yelling, 'Jesus Christ is born!' at the top of his lungs. He said it three or four times. He was yelling for five minutes and getting louder as he went on," said neighbor Bryndon Tarafa, 28.
"She was on her back, laying flat. She wasn't moving. I was pretty sure she was dead. The police came and put something over her," Tarafa said.
Hines, who shared a home with Davenport nearby, was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital, police said.
Davenport was taken into custody at the scene, police said.
"When the cops came to arrest him, he didn't run. He was just pacing around in front of the cars. He had his head down as if he had done nothing wrong," Tarafa said.
He was arrested for murder and taken for a psychiatric evaluation at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, police said.
The NYPD has arrested Davenport once before, for petit larceny in 2010, an NYPD spokesman said.
He was also arrested in Los Angeles last year, but the spokesman didn't know on what charge.
Sources said he'd also been arrested for marijuana possession.
Hines' grieving grandfather thanked people for their support following her death.
I want to acknowledge the tremendous outpouring of love and support my family has received regarding the tragic and senseless passing of my granddaughter Edena Hines. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. -M
Posted by Morgan Freeman on Sunday, August 16, 2015
Hines maintained a blog on her personal website and in her most recent post wrote about how she learned to calm her normally energetic personality.
"There is something beautiful in knowing you can find your stillness and be silent, but you can also be a ball of power," she wrote.
