{"id":46309,"date":"2025-12-31T00:58:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=46309"},"modified":"2025-12-31T00:58:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:58:21","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignformer-the-lion-king-child-star-imani-dia-smith-stabbed-to-death-at-26-boyfriend-charged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/12\/31\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignformer-the-lion-king-child-star-imani-dia-smith-stabbed-to-death-at-26-boyfriend-charged\/","title":{"rendered":"Former &#8216;The Lion King child&#8217; star Imani Dia Smith stabbed to death at 26, boyfriend charged"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"mvp-content-main\">&#13;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_188274\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-188274\" class=\"wp-image-188274 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Former-The-Lion-King-child-star-Imani-Dia-Smith-stabbed.jpg?resize=600%2C405&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Former-The-Lion-King-child-star-Imani-Dia-Smith-stabbed.jpg 600w, https:\/\/fakazanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Imani-300x203.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-188274\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Imani Dia Smith<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Former Broadway child star Imani Dia Smith, best known for playing Young Nala in <em>The Lion King<\/em>, has died after a fatal stabbing in New Jersey in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities say Smith was discovered with stab wounds on 21 December after police responded to a 911 call.<\/p>\n<p>She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead, at 26<\/p>\n<p>Smith is survived by her three-year-old son, her parents Monique Rance-Helper and Rawni Helper, two siblings, and extended family members.<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of her death, her family launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover funeral costs and provide support services, including therapy for her young son, siblings, and parents.<\/p>\n<p>The fundraiser has since raised more than $69,000 toward its $75,000 goal.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement released by her family, Smith was allegedly killed by her boyfriend, identified as 35-year-old Jordan D. Jackson-Small.<\/p>\n<p>He has been arrested and is facing multiple charges, including first-degree murder.<\/p>\n<p>New Jersey police confirmed that the incident was not random, stating: \u201cSmith and Jackson-Small knew each other prior to the incident, thus it was not a random act of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Police further revealed that Jackson-Small was taken into custody without incident and charged with first-degree murder, second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 4 -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Lion #King #child #star #Imani #Dia #Smith #stabbed #death #boyfriend #charged<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#13; Imani Dia Smith Former Broadway child star Imani Dia Smith, best known for playing Young Nala in The Lion&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46311,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46309\/revisions\/46311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}