Two people were stabbed to death in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon, in a brutal attack which started when one of the victims was talking to a colleague on an online Zoom call.
The double stabbing took place around 2:45pm in the Altadena neighborhood, with both victims pronounced dead at the scene, and their car reported missing.
Robert Cotton, 32, was arrested by police an hour later when he returned to the property in the vehicle.
The victims, who have yet to be officially identified, were a Black man and woman, both in their 60s. They were not a couple and their relationship to one another and the attacker was not immediately clear, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The woman was on a Zoom call when the attack started, and her frantic colleague dialed 911 thinking that a kidnapping was happening when the woman was dragged off the screen.
‘The lady was still talking on the Zoom when the male was dragged out of the house,’ Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lt. Barry Hall told CBSLA.
‘That alerted her and then the suspect went inside and attacked her.’
Scroll down for video
A suspect, Robert Cotton, 32, was arrested after he arrived at the scene in a victim’s SUV
Cotton is believed to be a relative of the victims, according to neighbors of the victims
When deputies arrived to the scene, the man was found dead in the driveway, with several stab wounds.
The woman was found deceased inside the residence.
Police believe the man was attacked first while the woman was on her Zoom call.
The woman was attacked shortly thereafter, with a witness on Zoom witnessing both of the attacks and calling 911 to report them.
A knife that may have been used during the attack was recovered at the scene.
Police arrested Cotton, 32, after he arrived at the residence in a Lexus SUV belonging to one of the victims, an hour after deputies were called.
Police deputies responded to a potential ‘kidnapping in progress’ Monday, only to find two adults in their 60s stabbed to death
Cotton, who identified himself as a resident of the home, was detained and booked on two counts of murder.
Neighbors told KTLA that the alleged suspect in the stabbings is somehow related to the two deceased.
‘We just can’t believe it,’ neighbor Darlene Thomas told KCAL. ‘We cannot believe it. We are in total shock.’
There are not believed to be any other suspects in the stabbings and the motive for the murders remains unclear.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for further comment.
No motive has been given for the crime, which took place while the female victim was on Zoom
This is not the first time someone has been attacked or killed while on a Zoom call since the pandemic began.
In May, 72-year-old Dwight Powers of Amityville, New York was on a Zoom call for Alcoholics Anonymous when he was allegedly stabbed to death by his son, Thomas Scully-Powers.
Scully-Powers appeared naked on the Zoom feed after the slaying and evaded cops after fleeing through a window before they caught up to him.
Other people on the Zoom did not realize something was off until Powers fell during the feed, WABC reports.
Scully-Powers was charged with 2nd-degree murder.
