Witnesses said shouting, pounding on a metal door and a forced police entry came just before officers found two wounded women inside.
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Neighbors in a Crown Heights apartment building say a loud hallway argument, a man banging on a locked door and officers forcing their way inside all came in the final minutes before a 74-year-old woman was found fatally stabbed.
The killing late Saturday inside the Ebbets Field apartments on Bedford Avenue left residents with a fragmented but vivid timeline of the attack. Police said Hadiatou Bah, 74, suffered stab wounds to the head and arms and later died at Kings County Hospital. A second woman, 72, was wounded but survived. By Monday, police had charged Oumou Bah, 43, with murder, attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon, saying scissors were used in the assault. Investigators have not publicly described a motive.
The strongest public account of what happened before officers entered has come from neighbors on the floor. Diana Harris said the disturbance began near the elevator, where she heard two women and a man arguing as they arrived. She said the women went into the apartment and shut the man outside. Then, she said, the man began hitting the door hard and yelling to be let in. Anissa Christian, another neighbor, said the pounding was so forceful that it shook the walls. Both women told television reporters the man eventually walked away. Soon after, police voices filled the hallway. Christian said officers repeatedly tried to get someone inside to open the door before breaking it down.
What happened once officers entered appears to have been fast and desperate. Christian said she heard police say one woman was going into cardiac arrest and needed to be moved so CPR could be performed more effectively. Authorities later said officers found a 74-year-old woman with wounds to her head and arms and another woman with wounds to her back and arm. The older victim was taken to the hospital but did not survive. The second woman was reported in stable condition. Police have not said whether the surviving victim called for help herself, whether another resident contacted 911 or whether the man seen in the hallway had any role in summoning help.
The building itself became part of the story because the violence unfolded inside a large, familiar apartment complex where neighbors said residents often know one another by sight. Harris said she believed the women lived on the 13th floor. She also said the people involved seemed to have known each other, and that the dispute looked personal rather than random. Later reporting identified Oumou Bah as a roommate of the victims. Authorities said she and Hadiatou Bah were not related, despite their shared surname. Neighbors also said several people appeared to be living in the apartment, a detail that may help investigators piece together who was present before the stabbing and who left before police forced entry.
The police case has moved on two tracks: reconstructing the hallway sequence described by witnesses and building the criminal case inside the apartment. On the night of the attack, officers took a person of interest into custody at the scene. By Mon., March 23, Oumou Bah had been charged. Police said the counts include murder, attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon. Those charges indicate investigators believe the same episode left one woman dead and another injured. Still, key details remain unclear in public: whether there had been earlier disputes inside the apartment, whether prosecutors plan to add more allegations and how detectives will account for the man neighbors saw just before officers arrived.
The reaction inside the building has been a mix of grief, fear and disbelief. Residents said the attack was hard to understand because it involved older women in a shared home, not a stranger in the street. One neighbor said the violence showed a lack of regard for elderly people inside the apartment. Harris said the crime felt unlike anything she expected to see among neighbors. After the stabbing, residents gathered in hallways and outside the building as police locked down the scene. The details that stayed with them were simple and disturbing: yelling at the elevator, fists against a metal door, officers shouting instructions and then the rush of an emergency unfolding out of sight behind an apartment wall.
As of March 24, the known public timeline runs from a hallway argument late Saturday to a forced police entry, a death at the hospital and charges filed Monday. The next steps are likely to come through court appearances and any new details investigators release.
Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.