Texas Pediatrician Fatally Stabbed While Sitting In Apartment Complex Common Area
A pediatrician was fatally stabbed at her apartment complex in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday afternoon in an attack her community is calling senseless.
Dr. Talat Khan, 52, was sitting outside the complex’s common area, talking on the phone with her dog nearby, when police say 24-year-old Miles Joseph Fridrich stabbed her to death, local news outlet KHOU reported.
According to KTRK, multiple people, including children and neighbors, witnessed the killing.
Matthew Amador, one of Khan’s neighbors, told the outlet that he grabbed his sword when he processed what was happening and ran after the attacker.
“I said, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ And just kind of spooked him. [It] didn’t look like he was there,” Amador told the station, noting that there was an “evil look in his eyes.”
“When I got there, he was checking her pulse to make sure she was alive and then stabbed her three more times,” Amador added.
According to police, the person who killed Khan fled on foot. Authorities later identified Fridrich as the suspect based on witness descriptions. He was taken into custody on suspicion of first-degree murder and is being held on $500,000 bond, according to Montgomery County jail records.
Dr. Talat Khan leaves behind her 14-year-old daughter and 23-year-old son. "Her kids and her kids she looked after as a pediatrician were her entire life," her brother said.
Mahnoor Mangrio, Khan’s niece, called her aunt extremely loving.
“This is an immeasurably loss for our family, completely unexpected,” Mangrio told KHOU. “She’s a Muslim, strong in her faith, those are identifiable traits about her.”
Wajahat Nyaz, Khan’s brother, told the outlet that his sister had moved from Seattle to Texas to enjoy somewhere sunny.
He told KPRC that she leaves behind two children, a 14-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old son.
“Her kids and her kids she looked after as a pediatrician were her entire life,” Nyaz told the outlet. “Everything in her life revolved around those two things.”
Khan had been attending the Al-Ansaar Islamic Center since moving to the area. The mosque offered condolences to her family as well as prayers for the doctor.
It’s unclear whether there was a motive behind the stabbing or why Fridrich would have been at the apartment complex since he didn’t live there. However, in a statement on Facebook, the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Houston said it is in conversation with law enforcement and launching its own investigation into the matter.
“While the police have not released a motive for the killing, we want to assure everyone that we are in conversation with law enforcement agencies,” the statement read. “We are unsure at this moment if this was a hate crime; however, given the tragic circumstances, we are paying very close attention to the investigation.”
A spokesperson for the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office told HuffPost that the Conroe Police Department is still actively investigating the crime and that no court date has been set for Fridrich.
Court records show that Fridrich was charged in 2020 for unlawfully carrying a weapon but that the case was dismissed that same year.