A man stabbed a pregnant woman in the neck in front of her children while trying to steal her car as the family was returning to a Hamden home after a New Year’s Eve party, according to police.
Police said officers responded to a home on a Fairview Avenue after the 31-year-old New Jersey woman called police around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday and told them she was pregnant and severely injured.
The woman, who is six-months pregnant, was bleeding profusely from the carotid artery when officers arrived and she was transported to Yale-New Haven Hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Police said they determined that the woman, her two children, nephew and fiancé had been returning to a relative’s home after a New Year’s Eve celebration and a man “ambushed” the victim after she parked her vehicle in the driveway and stabbed her several times in the neck as her children looked on.
Police identified the suspect as 18-year-old Naji Deneutte, of Hamden, and said he was trying to steal the victim’s car.
The woman was able to fend Deneutte off and he ran from the area, police said.
Investigators quickly identified Deneutte as a suspect and went to his home with a warrant on Thursday, recovered evidence and found a stolen loaded firearm under his mattress, according to police.
Deneutte was arrested and charged with assault in the first degree on a pregnant person, criminal attempt to commit carjacking, theft of a firearm, criminal possession of a firearm and possession of marijuana.
He was held on a $550,000 bond and appeared in court. The court increased Deneutte's bond to more than $1 million, according to police.
