31 March, 2021

Mother and uncle fatally stabbed by son during Zoom call

London, UK - 09 12 2020: Apple iPhone 6s screen with video conference social media icons applications Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Meet, Skype, Telegram, Twitter etc.

Authorities in the United States say a Southern California man has fatally stabbed his mother and uncle while the female victim was on a Zoom call with a co-worker.

Robert Cotton, 32, was arrested on two counts of murder, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, after stabbing his mother, Carol Brown, 67, and uncle, Kenneth Preston, 69, Lieutenant Barry Hall of the Sheriff’s Department said last week.

It was not immediately clear what led to the attacks, which took place in Altadena, California. Lieutenant Hall said the Sheriff’s Department was not aware of a motive for the stabbings.

Authorities said in a statement that they found Preston on the driveway when they arrived. They said he had been stabbed several times.

Inside the house officers discovered Brown, who had also been fatally injured.

“During the investigation, detectives learned that the female victim was conducting a Zoom call with a colleague when the attack on the male occurred,” police said in a statement.

“The Zoom caller witnessed the attack on both the male and female and called 911 to report the crime.”

Four people were on the video call at the time of the attack, according to The New York Times.

Lieutenant Hall told reporters the witness on Zoom claimed that Brown had been alerted to an incident after the man was dragged out of the house.

Police also discovered that one of the victim’s cars was missing from the property and a man caught returning it, identified as Robert Cotton, claimed he was a resident of the home.

“He parked the car about a half-mile from the scene,” Lieutenant Hall said, via The Times, adding that Cotton had walked over and tried to bypass the yellow caution tape that deputies had set up.

Cotton was arrested and booked on two counts of murder at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, with his bail set at $2 million, The Times reported.

Featured image source: iStock/alexsl

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