Concord Woman Accused Of Attempting To Slash Teen Relative With A Knife Inside Apartment

CONCORD, NH — A woman from Concord faces felony charges after being accused of attempting to slash a family member with a knife, an altercation caught on cellphone video, according to an affidavit.

On Dec. 30, 2023, several officers were sent to an apartment at the Royal Gardens complex after a call to 911, which featured a woman screaming and asking police to come to the apartment due to a fight. Dispatch said the phone disconnected and there was no information about weapons at the scene.

Officers arrived, took control of the situation, and arrested a teenager on domestic violence charges due to an accusation made by a woman against him.

While placing the teen in the cruiser, he told the officer the incident was not his fault, and he had cellphone video to prove there were other issues in the home. The officer agreed to watch the video and, in the report, accused Jacqueline Ishimwe, 24, of Royal Gardens, of holding a large kitchen knife and threatening the teen. The teen could be heard screaming, “She’s stabbing me,” on the video, the report stated. The teen attempted to walk away from Ishimwe while she made stabbing and slashing motions at the teen, an affidavit said.

“I then observed her to turn, take two steps away, and turn back to face (the teen),” the officer wrote. “I then observed her to lunge forward and attempt to stab (the teen) again. (She thrusted) her right arm in a downward motion.”

The officer accused Ishimwe of attempting to slash her relative a third time and the knife appeared to make contact with his cellphone. The officer wrote a toddler could be seen walking and crying in the background. Ishimwe, the officer wrote in the affidavit, was holding her own phone while saying something in Kinyarwanda, and then, she walked back to the kitchen. The video was about 19 seconds long and the time stamp was just before noon on Dec. 11, 2023.

After transporting the teen on the prior charges, two other officers questioned Ishimwe about the video. She said on that day, she was cutting potatoes when the teen came into the apartment intoxicated, the report said. She said he was known to be violent when he was drunk.

According to court records, the teen has been arrested or charged nearly two dozen times since July 2022, including several alcohol charges.

Ishimwe said the teen called her a “whore” due to pregnancies by two separate fathers, the report stated. When asked why the teen would care, she said she did not know, the officer wrote. Ishimwe then said the teen approached her and said he would punch her stomach and kill her unborn baby, which provoked her to grab the knife and walk towards him, the affidavit said.

“Jacqueline told me after she waved the knife at him, (the teen) left the house, and she went back into the kitchen,” the officer wrote.

The knife was identified and seized by police.

The reporting officer interviewed the victim about the video in a holding cell at police headquarters.

The teen said Ishimwe and the toddler were in the kitchen while she was cooking. He accused her of spitting at the boy and calling him a dog. He then said the toddler came running and crying toward him. Ishimwe then began yelling at the boy and ordering him to come back, the report said. The victim accused Ishimwe of then becoming irate and yelling at him.

“He advised that he thought Jacqueline might have been drunk that night,” the affidavit stated. “He advised that Jacqueline then came at him with the knife and tried to stab him multiple times. He advised that this was when he started video recording with his cellphone.”

The next day, the reporting officer went back to speak with Ishimwe and wrote that her story was similar to the night before with the other officers. The reporting officer wrote, however, that this time, Ishimwe added that she swung the knife at the teen, something she did not say in the first interview, the affidavit stated. She also said she never cut him, the officer wrote. When asked what she meant by swung at him, Ishimwe made an “up and down (motion), as she did in the video,” the report said.

A warrant was issued for her arrest on Dec. 31, 2023, on two attempted first-degree assault-domestic violence and two attempted first-degree assault charges, all felonies. Ishimwe was arrested later that day.

Ishimwe was arraigned on Feb. 1 and given personal recognizance. She is due back in Merrimack County Superior Court for a dispositional conference on April 1.

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