Police have arrested a 34-year-old woman for the fatal stabbing of a young woman outside a church in the Carroll-South Hilton neighborhood in late July.

The suspect, identified as Dasianne Richardson, was arrested Saturday and charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, assault and reckless endangerment.

The charge comes less than two weeks after 18-year-old Brielle Handy was found with a stab wound outside the Love of God Apostolic Church in the 3200 block of West Baltimore Street.

Court documents said police officers arrived at the scene shortly after 8 p.m. and found Handy with a stab wound to the neck as members of the Fire Department gave her CPR. Handy was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center and later pronounced dead.

Advertise with us

In a subsequent investigation, detectives learned that Handy and Richardson were involved in a physical altercation in the alley beside the church. Witnesses told police that a person, later identified as Richardson from a photograph, was fighting with Handy when she pulled a knife from her shirt and stabbed Handy before fleeing on foot, according to court records.

The killing sparked an outcry of grief in Southwest Baltimore. Deacon Milton Nelson of the church told WJZ-TV that he prayed for the victim’s family.

“We don’t want things like this happening around our church,” Nelson said. “We are in the community to try to help people and bring people into the church before things like this happen.”

Richardson didn’t have an attorney listed in online court records. She has a preliminary hearing scheduled for later in August.