An enraged Bronx man fatally stabbed the mother of his two daughters over the weekend because he thought she was cheating on him, according to cops and a relative.
A child described as family was home at the time of the attack, although it’s unclear whether the youngster was one of the couple’s kids, sources said.
Khaleel Cooper, 39, is accused of knifing 40-year-old Tamara Rowe in her chest and right arm in their sixth-floor unit on East 232nd Street near White Plains Road in Wakefield on Saturday, authorities said.
Rowe’s brother called 911 when he found his sister’s lifeless body during a wellness check in the apartment around 8:35 p.m. Saturday, police sources said.
She was rushed to Montefiore Medical Center, where she succumbed to her injuries.
The troubled couple met in Jamaica, where they had their first daughter, who is now 9 or 10, and then their second child, now 2-and-a-half, in the US, according to a female relative who did not want to be identified.
Cooper had planned to start a trucking business – as his family had in Jamaica – but decided against it since Rowe wasn’t a fan of the idea, the woman said.
Rowe meanwhile worked the night shift at a Queens restaurant, and Cooper grew suspicious when a man brought her home one night, the kin said. Rowe usually take MetroNorth – and she wasn’t calling Cooper as much, either, the relative said.
“He felt like, ‘I stopped my life for you. … You and I would eventually get married,’ ” the family member said.
“He felt like she was sneaking around, and he didn’t like it,” she added.
Tensions came to a head when Cooper claimed he put a recorder under the bed and captured Rowe having phone sex with another man – but she denied this, according to the relative.
“He told me he loved her so much,” the family member said. “He said, ‘We don’t have any issues.’ He was even crying, that’s how hurt he was.”
Cooper was charged with murder, manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal possession of a weapon in the slaying, police said.
He has no prior arrests, authorities said.
His arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending Tuesday.
“We never thought it would be stabbing and killing,” the relative said. “I’m sad that she’s no longer with us, but I feel bad for him too because nobody deserves that, the way she treated him, but also nobody deserves to die.”
Now, the couple’s two girls “lost everything,” according to the family member.
“They didn’t just lose a mom, they lost their dad, too.”
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