A mother remembers her husband after her 17-year-old son fatally stabbed him while driving in Prince George’s County, Maryland. News4’s Derrick Ward has the story.
A Maryland teenager stabbed and killed his father while they were driving down a road in Bowie and then dragged his father's body into the woods when the SUV crashed, police said.
Barba Koroma, 17, admitted to stabbing his 62-year-old father, also named Barba Koroma, just before the SUV crashed into a fence on Northview Drive near Allen Pond Park Friday afternoon, Prince George's County police said.
"I'm still in shock. I'm in denial," said Patricia Koroma, the victim's wife.
Bowie police officers found the father in a wooded area near the crash. Medics tried to save him, but he died at the scene.
Officers say they saw the teen walking out of the wooded area and he was taken to a hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.
The father and son were on their way to the library, Patricia said. The elder Koroma was driving his son there to do homework since he was in summer school, she said.
Investigators later questioned Koroma and determined he and his father were fighting inside the SUV as his father was driving. Koroma told detectives he stabbed his father and then pulled him from the vehicle and dragged him into the woods nearby, police said.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Patricia said that she can't understand how a routine errand involving a father and son could end so tragically.
"There was no problem between them," she said.
She described the victim as a "lovely" husband and father who loved life.
The elder Koroma came to the U.S. from Sierra Leone through his studies in the U.S. and abroad, ultimately earning his PhD, Patricia said.
He previously worked at Johns Hopkins and was a scientist at the National Institute of Health when he was killed, she said.
Amid all his achievements, their three children were his priority, she said.
"He can go the extra mile for anything," she said.
Koroma was charged as an adult with first- and second-degree murder and is in jail with no bond, police said.
Correction: A previous version of this story said Koroma earned his PhD from Johns Hopkins University. It has been updated to say that he previously worked at Johns Hopkins.
