Oprah Says She’ll ‘Think Twice Before’ Giving Panhandlers Money After Woman’s Horrific Stabbing
UPDATE:
The story of the Maryland mother who was fatally stabbed after giving money to homeless woman struck almost everyone who has given to someone presumably in need, even Oprah Winfrey.
Just hours after Jacquelyn Smith's tragic killing was reported, her story went viral. Now, people hope her family finds justice and peace after this tragedy.
Oprah, who is a former Baltimore resident, tweeted how she was devastated to learn that a good Samaritan was punished. She also revealed she will never roll down her window to give money ever again.
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A Maryland woman was stabbed to death in front of her family after rolling down her car window and giving money to a homeless woman.
52-year-old Jacquelyn Smith, from Aberdeen, was riding in the car with her husband and his daughter Saturday night when they stopped to help a panhandler. Smith noticed a woman holding what appeared to be a baby and carrying a sign that read, “Please help me feed my baby,” KUTV reported.
Smith, who was sitting in the passenger seat at the time, rolled down her window to and began to hand the woman some cash.
“That’s when an unknown man approached the vehicle, stabbed the woman and then left the location,” Jeremy Silbert, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department, told CBS Baltimore.
The woman holding then took off with the assailant, who was described as being a six-foot-tall man in his 30s with a goatee.
Two friends of Smith said while she had “heart of gold,” they still don’t believe all the details of the incident.
“It just don’t sound right to me. It just don’t sound right, it really doesn’t,” one friend said. “But if it did, I can see her doing that. Going in her purse and giving someone some money. Because she’s the type of person who would do that for anybody.”
Following the tragedy, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh warned people not to roll down their car windows for anyone.
“We don’t want people destroying other people’s lives. This is unconscionable and as I’ve continued to say, one life lost in this city is one life too many,” she told CBS.
