Connecticut Man Charged With Stabbing Wife to Death, Shooting Mother-in-Law

A Connecticut man was arrested this week after he allegedly stabbed his wife to death and shot his mother-in-law, all in front of the couple’s two children.

Christopher Raye, 45, has been charged with murder in the death of 30-year-old Bryana Raye, along with first-degree assault with a firearm, illegal discharge of a firearm, criminal possession of a firearm and criminal use of a weapon and two counts of risk of injury to a minor, the Hartford Courant reports.

The New Britain Police Department said that Raye was arrested late Tuesday when he was seen walking along the Berlin Turnpike.

An affidavit says that police responded to the home  just before 3 a.m. when a woman in Pennsylvania — a friend of Bryana Raye’s mother — called about a phone call she’d received from the mother. She said the mother had told her the couple was having trouble and that the Rayes and their children were away from the house and she didn’t know where they were.

While they were on the phone, the family returned. The woman in Pennsylvania said she heard what sounded like someone punching someone before her friend called out, “he beat her call 911.” She reported hearing a scuffle, screams, and Bryana Raye yelling, “No, Chris, no, don’t” and several loud bangs.

Another man, a family member who was playing video games in the home at the time, got on the phone and said there blood and bullets everywhere.

When police arrived at the home, he was holding a spent bullet casing. He told police that Bryana Raye’s mother had been concerned “something bad was going to happen’ to her daughter. He said he left the room where he was playing video games and saw Christopher Raye stabbing his wife with a bloody knife and her mother on the floor with a gunshot wound.

He said he ushered the children, who were “watching this happen,” to another room and then yelled for Raye to get out of the apartment, which he did, then grabbed the mother’s phone and spoke to the woman in Pennsylvania.

The mother, who was not named, was reportedly hospitalized in critical condition. Bryana Raye was pronounced dead on the scene. She had stab wounds to her neck and torso.

Investigators said surveillance video from next door showed a black Chevrolet Silverado, apparently registered to Raye, back out of the driveway around the time of the killing.  They were unable to ping Raye’s cell phones because he turned them off.

While searching for him, they found another truck Raye owns for his landscaping business. A man inside told them Raye had called him crying, saying he did something “very unnormal” and that “something crazy happened.” The man told police Raye had said he “couldn’t live anymore.”

Back at the home, Christopher Raye’s mother arrived at about 4 a.m. and said he’d called her to say he was “in trouble.” He didn’t respond when she asked what he had done.

Police did not say if they recovered the weapons used in the the attacks, but did say that Raye is a convicted felon who is barred from having guns or ammunition.

Raye appeared before a judge on Wednesday and was given a $1 million bond, WVIT reported.

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[Feature image: Christopher Raye/New Britain Police Department]