Montclair Stabbing Victim Was ‘Hard-Working Student,’ Family Says

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Akirah Townes will be remembered as a “great girl,” a “hard-working college student” and a person “full of life.” And it’s these thoughts of the 20-year-old Orange resident – who was tragically stabbed to death in Montclair on April 27 – that those who knew her will cherish, according to her family.

“To know Akirah is to LOVE HER,” they emphasized on a GoFundMe page to build a memorial in the Kean University student’s honor. (See the online fundraising campaign here)

Townes’ family plans to hold a domestic violence rally in her honor on Saturday, May 5. The rally will begin with a march from the Townes’ home to the Orange police station at noon, where the domestic violence rally will be held. After that, participants will march to the Lincoln Avenue School gym at 3 p.m. for a celebration of Townes’ life, North Jersey.com reported.

According to police, Townes was stabbed around 6 a.m. outside a home on Hartley Street. Emergency responders transported her to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, where she was pronounced dead at 6:42 a.m., authorities said.

That night, authorities announced that police made an arrest in connection with the stabbing. According to a joint statement from Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino and Montclair Police Chief Todd Conforti:

“The incident occurred as Townes was attempting to leave on a trip to Virginia Beach... An investigation by detectives from the Essex County Prosecutor's Homicide Task Force and the Montclair Police Department led authorities to charge Ahighah Broomes, 21, of Orange, with murder of Townes. It appears that the victim and suspect were in a relationship at some point in the past. As detectives were searching for Broomes, he turned himself in at the Orange Police Headquarters."

Authorities charged Broomes with Murder, Unlawful Possession of a Weapon and Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose.

• See related article: Montclair Fatal Stabbing; Kean Student, 20, Dies

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Photo: GoFundMe