Youth stabbed to death over Eddie Bauer coat

A young Black male college student was stabbed to death by a man who robbed him of his down-filled Eddie Bauer coat. The youth was waiting to leave a dark movie theater in Maryland when he was brutally attacked.

Twenty-year-old Anthony Jamaal Thomas of New Carrollton, MD, a sophomore at Prince George's Community College who aspired to be a lawyer and worked part time at a car dealership, was stabbed in the chest at least 10 times in front of dozens of other moviegoers.

Police say the attack occurred about 11:45 p.m. after the last showing of the film Half Baked.

"I can't believe they took my brother away for a piece of clothing," the victim's sister, Siobhan Thomas, 24, told the Washington Post, as she choked back tears. "They could have asked me and I would have bought all of them in there clothing."

She said she and her mother, with whom Thomas lived, bought the coat for him two years ago as a birthday present.

According to the Washington Post, the police said Thomas was waiting in an aisle to exit when the assailant struck, stripping him of his navy blue parka and stabbing him repeatedly. Stunned moviegoers screamed and rushed to the exits in panic.

One of Thomas' friends, who asked not to be identified because he is a witness, described the scene to a Washington Post reporter:

"We laughed the whole movie and had a great time. Then we got up, and we were walking out," said the 19-year-old friend.

He continued, saying they were walking up the aisle on the way out of the movie theater and he noticed that two people were fighting. He didn't realize Thomas was involved until he heard him scream, "He's stabbing me! He's stabbing me!" By then the friend said everyone was just running all over the place.

Thomas staggered out of the movie theater clutching his chest, police said, and his friends helped him to the police station in the mall. But no one was there.

"His shirt was all cut up and he's bleeding. And there's blood on the walls. We're just running yelling for help. Then he has to lay down because he can't run anymore," the friend said.

He said somebody put a sweater on the wounds and then he removed his belt and tied it around Thomas' body to hold the sweater in place.

His friend thinks Thomas died in his arms on the floor of the mall.

"Anthony was one of the most beautiful young men I've been blessed to know. He never hurt a soul," said the unidentified witness who's known Thomas since the first grade. "I can't believe someone took his life over a jacket."

The Greenbelt police said the assailant apparently cut himself during the attack, and they urged area doctors to be on the lookout for him. But at JET press time, there were no patients who resembled him at any area medical facilities.

With the help of one witness, a police artist created a composite computer image of the man suspected of stabbing to death the 20-year-old college student.

Detectives say Thomas' assailant is an 18- to 25-year-old man who was operating alone.

Thomas' family, friends, and employer have established a reward fund to help the search for the killer.

Thomas spent the last day of his life registering for classes and then visiting a counselor at the University of Maryland at College Park to inquire about transferring there.