Holiday shopping at a Palm Beach Gardens bookstore ended in bloodshed when a 65-year-old woman was fatally stabbed in an unprovoked attack.
Police in Florida are investigating the death of Rita Loncharich, who was attacked shortly before 8 p.m. Monday inside a Barnes & Noble at the Legacy Place shopping center.
Authorities said Loncharich was wounded during a sudden assault that left shoppers stunned and scrambling for safety.
According to WPTV, witnesses told officers that a man later identified as 40-year-old Antonio Moore fled the bookstore immediately after the stabbing.
Palm Beach Gardens police arrived to find Loncharich inside the store suffering from a knife wound, with the weapon still lodged in her back.
Officers at the scene provided emergency medical assistance and rushed Loncharich to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach. Despite those efforts, she died from her injuries, police said.
Moore was taken into custody a short time later after officers located him hiding in wooded areas near the shopping center.
Jail records show he has since been booked on a charge of first-degree premeditated murder.
“This investigation is active and ongoing,” the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department said in a statement, according to ABC News. “Investigators are still trying to determine a motive for this attack.”
Court documents paint a disturbing picture of the moments leading up to the violence.
In a probable cause affidavit obtained by ABC News, Moore allegedly told investigators that he stabbed Loncharich using a fixed-blade knife.
The affidavit states that Moore claimed he heard Loncharich say “he stabbed me” before he ran from the store.
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Investigators wrote that Moore told police he did not single Loncharich out and said she was simply the “closest person inside the store.” Authorities said Moore indicated the attack was not driven by a personal dispute or prior interaction.
Moore reportedly told officers that he arrived in Palm Beach Gardens by bus roughly a week before the stabbing. According to the affidavit, he entered the bookstore to charge his phone when he experienced what he described as an “internal build up that led to his fight or flight response kicking in.” He then allegedly attacked Loncharich without articulating a specific reason.
Loncharich’s husband said his wife managed to call him on her cell phone Monday night to tell him she had been attacked.
He told CBS12 that police later informed him the suspect was homeless, originally from Alabama, and had only recently arrived in Florida. He said officers described Moore as mentally ill and living outdoors since coming to the state.
Moore made his first court appearance Wednesday and was ordered held without bond, according to online court records. He is scheduled to return to court next month.
Records from Alabama courts show that Antonio Roderick Moore, who shares the same date of birth and driver’s license number as the suspect in the Palm Beach Gardens case, was indicted in 2024 in Dallas County on a charge of second-degree criminal mischief. That case was tied to a fire set outside a credit union, according to court filings.
The shopping center where the attack occurred issued a statement following Loncharich’s death. “We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of a customer following an incident on property,” Legacy Place told WPTV.
“Our hearts are with the victim’s family, friends and all those impacted. Police responded quickly and a suspect was taken into custody shortly after the incident. Safety remains our top priority. We are working closely with local law enforcement, enhancing our on-site security presence and reviewing protocols with tenants.”
The deadly stabbing in Florida came as authorities in New York City were handling another violent incident inside a major retail store earlier this month.
In that case, prosecutors said a homeless woman from Massachusetts attacked another woman inside a bathroom at Macy’s Herald Square.
The suspect, identified as 43-year-old Kerri Aherne, allegedly stabbed a California woman in the back while the victim was changing her baby.
According to prosecutors, the infant fell from the changing table during the attack but was not hurt. Authorities said the victim was able to restrain Aherne until Macy’s security guards arrived and detained her.
The victim, who has been identified only by her employment with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was taken to Bellevue Hospital and later released the following day.
Aherne was charged with attempted murder, two counts of assault, criminal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child. She is being held without bail, according to court records.
Prosecutors described the stabbing as an unprovoked act. Court documents show Aherne has a lengthy history of mental illness, with her last known address listed as Tewksbury, Massachusetts.
In a criminal complaint, prosecutors said Aherne told police she had been discharged from Manhattan Psychiatric Center the morning of the stabbing after a yearlong stay.
She also told investigators she left Massachusetts in an Uber during the summer of 2024 while on a temporary leave pass from a hospital, according to the prosecution’s bail application.
The prosecution stated that Aherne said she could no longer tolerate hospitals and would rather be incarcerated than returned to psychiatric care.
Authorities also alleged that she told police she purchased a knife inside Macy’s and searched for someone to kill because “voices in her head told her she had to kill someone, or she would be killed.”
A Manhattan grand jury indicted Aherne on Wednesday, and a judge ordered her held without bail.
Prosecutors said she does not have a criminal record in New York but was arrested in 2018 in her Massachusetts hometown after allegedly posting on Facebook about killing Sen. Elizabeth Warren and threatening to shoot someone at a local police station.
Aherne pleaded not guilty at her initial arraignment last week and has not yet entered a plea on the grand jury indictment.
That case is scheduled for Jan. 7. If convicted, prosecutors said she could face up to 25 years in prison on charges that include attempted murder and endangering the welfare of a child.
