A Monday evening shopping trip ended with tragedy when a 65-year-old woman was stabbed to death inside a Barnes & Noble bookstore, according to local authorities.
According to a press release issued by the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department on Dec. 23, officers responded to the store at 11380 Legacy Ave. at approximately 7:53 p.m. the previous night. Inside, they found the victim, Rita B. Loncharich, suffering from stab wounds.
Police said officers immediately tried to help Loncharich, and Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue rushed her to a nearby hospital. However, she died from her injuries, the police said in a statement shared with NTD.
Witnesses inside the store told investigators that a man stabbed Loncharich and then ran out of the building. Police identified the suspect as 40-year-old Antonio R. Moore. Investigators found and captured Moore shortly after the attack.
As of Tuesday, detectives have not released a reason for the killing. "This investigation is active and ongoing," the police department stated, noting that they are "still trying to determine a motive for this attack."
A representative for the bookstore chain did not immediately respond to an inquiry from NTD on the Palm Beach Gardens incident. Barnes & Noble has told numerous media outlets that it does not comment on any ongoing police investigations, when asked about the recent stabbing.
In an unrelated case in North Carolina, a man named Kenyon Kareem-Shemar Dobie was recently celebrated for saving passengers during a stabbing on a light rail train on Dec. 5.
The 24-year-old Dobie was critically injured when 33-year-old Oscar Solarzano stabbed him on the light rail near NoDa of the Charlotte Area Transit System. He told a local news station that he stepped in after witnessing Solarzano threatening an older woman.
The Barnes & Noble chain has also dealt with violence in the past. Local media reported in January 2023 that a manager at a Boulder store was stabbed by a suspected shoplifter named Benjamin Scott Schwelling.
The victim’s stab wound was around half an inch to three quarters of an inch, the Boulder District Attorney’s Office revealed at the time. According to local reports, Schwelling allegedly told police the manager had shoved him into a bicycle when confronting him for shoplifting.