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Police: Man wanted to kill toddler, said he was 'going to slit her throat'

LYNN, Mass. — A man accused of kidnapping a child in Lynn, Massachusetts, on Tuesday said he was "thinking about killing the kid," according to an arrest report.

Police say when the mother of the toddler confronted the man who took her child and walked out of a Lynn laundromat, he silently handed the child back to her before walking away.

After getting a photo of the man, police said they found him outside a Stop and Shop along Washington Street, not far from the laundromat. A witness was brought to confirm he was the suspect, who was later identified as Precious Chigbue, police said.

In an interview with Chigbue's cousin, Emeka Iloba, police say they were told he thought his brother, Fortune, was a witch.

According to officers, Chigbue was arrested and asked about what he planned to do with the girl.

“I was thinking about killing the kid,” the arresting officer wrote Chigbue said in his report.

When questioned later, police say Chigbue told them he was interested in "killing a kid."

Police say an officer asked how he planned on doing that and Chigbue responded, “I was going to slit her throat.”

"That was just complete hallucinations," Iloba told WFXT. "That was not his intention."

Chigbue has been in the U.S. for only about four months after emigrating from Nigeria, according to the report. Police say the Nigerian consulate was notified of the arrest.

Iloba told police, "Precious needs mental health treatment and should not be released back onto the streets."

"Precious thought that Fortune was flying the apartment and doing evil things to him," the report states Iloba told police. "Precious also became obsessed with Hillary Clinton and the [2016] presidential election. [The man] stated that he saw Precious yesterday afternoon and Precious was grabbing him by the shoulders repeatedly asking him if he voted for Hillary Clinton. [He] stated that Precious was a supporter of Hillary Clinton and wanted to make sure that everyone he knew voted for her for president ... Precious had asked [a dectective] if he had voted for Hillary at the end of the recorded interview."

Iloba says his cousin suffers from mental health issues and would never hurt anybody.

"I'm sure he didn't mean to ... actually threaten the baby's life," Iloba said. "I think he needs a lot of treatment, not jail time because if they put that man in jail they're not going to help him at all."