Woman charged with fatally stabbing romantic rival in front of her 3-year-old son

A woman allegedly targeting a romantic rival has been charged in a fatal knife attack that happened in broad daylight last month in Humboldt Park.

Tyteanne Bell, 34, faces a count of first-degree murder in the Jan. 20 attack on 24-year-old Jamilah Brown, who was walking in the 3700 block of West Chicago Avenue with her 3-year-old son.

About 3:45 p.m. that day, Brown and the toddler were headed to an ATM machine to get money to pay for her older son’s haircut when Bell got out of a rental car and stabbed her repeatedly in the neck and head, Cook County prosecutors said.

Bell allegedly fled in the rental car. A witness who saw Brown bleeding ran to the 3-year-old and called 911. Brown later died at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Bell returned the rental car in Saint Charles later that evening and reached out to her brother, a Chicago police officer, to ask him if he had heard about the murder and whether there were cameras in the area, prosecutors said.

The officer called the department, identified his sister in surveillance video from the attack and provided investigators with text messages from Bell, prosecutors said.

Bell was also identified by an employee of the car company as the person who rented and returned the vehicle, prosecutor said. Apparent blood found in the vehicle is still awaiting testing.

Prosecutors said Bell’s cell phone data showed her going from the rental facility to the area where the attack occurred and back to the rental lot. An investigation allegedly found the two women were involved in a relationship with the same man.

Bell was previously convicted of battery for stabbing the wife of her then-boyfriend in the leg. She was sentenced to probation in 2019, prosecutors said.

Judge Susana Ortiz Bell was ordered Bell held without bail. Bell was expected back in court Feb. 27.