LYNN — Precious Chigbue, the Lynn man accused of attempting to abduct a 1-year-old old girl from a Washington Street laundromat on Tuesday morning reportedly told police that it was his intention to kill the baby by slitting her throat.
Chigbue, 24, pleaded not guilty to kidnapping in Lynn District Court on Wednesday and was held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Nov. 2.
Police responded to the kidnapping attempt at Showcase Coin-Op shortly before 11 a.m. A witness, a 32-year-old Lynn man had alerted the 28-year-old mother that the suspect had carried her baby out of the laundromat. The witness and mother confronted Chigbue outside where he handed the child back over to her mother, and then took off, Lynn Police Lt. Michael Kmiec said.
Responding officers radioed the man’s description and a police officer working a detail at the Stop & Shop down the street was able to stop Chigbue as he was leaving the grocery store, Kmiec said.
After police detained Chigbue, an officer asked him what he planned to do with the little girl that he had taken and he reportedly said “I was thinking about killing the kid,” according to a police report obtained at Lynn District Court.
After Chigbue was taken to the Lynn Police Station, he again expressed his interest in “killing a baby” and when an officer asked him how he planned to do that, he responded by saying “I was going to slit her throat,” court documents show.
The child’s mother, a Lynn resident, reportedly told police that Chigbue was a total stranger to her and she had never seen him before.
Chigbue has been in the country for four months from Nigeria and his residence is about 100 yards from the laundromat where he grabbed the child — he was walking in the direction of his residence with the girl when he was confronted by the witness and mother, court documents show.
Police also responded to an apartment at 17 Henry Ave., which Chigbue gave as his home address. The 58-year-old man there told police that Chigbue did not live there, but that he resided on Neptune Street with his two older brothers. The man said that he is also from Nigeria and that his cousin still living in Nigeria is the father of Chigbue and his two older brothers. He said that the father sent all three of his boys to the United States in May and they were only in the country for six months on a tourist visa, but hope to apply for another visa to remain in the country, court documents show.
The Henry Avenue man told police that after Chigbue attended a university in Nigeria, he fell into the wrong group of friends and began to use illegal drugs. After that, he said that Chigbue was no longer the same and struggled with mental health issues, according to the police report.
The man said Chigbue was committed to a psychiatric hospital in Nigeria for a year because of mental health problems, but the doctors released him after that time and told the family that he was no longer a problem, court documents show.
Recently, the man said he told Chigbue’s father that he needed to come to the United States and take Chigbue back because of his mental health problems — Chigbue had been accusing one of his brothers of being a witch, that he was flying around the apartment doing evil things to him, court documents show.
The man told police Chigbue was also obsessed with Hillary Clinton and the 2016 presidential election — he said Chigbue had grabbed him by the shoulders the other day and repeatedly asked him if he had voted for Clinton. Chigbue also asked a Lynn police detective if he had voted for Clinton at the end of his interview, court documents show.
Chigbue told police that he takes Risperdal, an antipsychotic medication, to calm himself down and remove his hallucinations. When asked by police why he wanted to kill the baby and slit her throat, he reportedly said “because I just had that thought.”
