(NCS) — Imani Smith, who once played a younger Nala in Disney’s “The Lion King” on Broadway, died on Sunday after she was discovered with stab wounds at a house, based on the Middlesex County, New Jersey, Prosecutor’s Office.
She “had her whole life ahead of her,” a GoFundMe account arrange by Smith’s aunt, Kira Helper, stated. “She was a vivacious, loving and fiercely talented person.”
On December 21, simply after 9:15 a.m., authorities in Edison, New Jersey, obtained a 911 name a couple of stabbing, according to a launch.
“Upon their arrival to a residence on Grove Avenue, they discovered Imani Smith, 26, of Edison with stab wounds,” the discharge stated. Smith was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the place she was declared lifeless.
Officials have arrested Jordan D. Jackson-Small, 35, of Edison, in reference to Smith’s loss of life. Authorities stated the 2 knew one another earlier than the incident and described it as “not a random act of violence.”
Smith’s father, Rawni Helper, stated in a telephone name with NCS Saturday that Jackson-Small is the daddy of Smith’s 3-year-old son.
Jackson-Small is dealing with several charges, authorities stated, together with first-degree homicide and third-degree possession of a weapon for an illegal objective. He is at the moment being held on the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center according to jail data.
NCS has reached out to his lawyer on the Middlesex County public defenders workplace for remark
Smith labored from 2011 to 2012 for Disney’s “The Lion King,” Broadway’s third-longest running show, according to Playbill.
The former child actress is survived by her son, “her parents, her two younger siblings, and an extended family, friends, and community who loved her so very much,” the GoFundMe stated.
“A true triple-threat performer, she most notably played the role of Young Nala on Broadway in Disney’s Lion King — an experience that reflected the joy, creativity, and light she put into the world,” the submit, which has raised greater than $70,000, stated.
NCS’s Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.
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