An aspiring rapper from Brooklyn has been arrested and charged for a 2021 acid attack on a Pakistani college student in her driveway on Long Island, authorities said Tuesday.
Terrell Jennings, a 29-year-old East New York resident, was hit with four charges for the March 2021 attack on Nafiah Ikram outside her home in Elmont, the Nassau County Police Department said in an alert.
Ikram, now 26, survived the attack but was blinded in her right eye and permanently disfigured. She said last year that she still couldn’t fully open her mouth.
“I thought in order to survive, I would tell myself I’m not going to look like that forever,” she told Newsday. “But now I have to start loving myself for who I am, not what I look like.”
The case was approaching the five-year statute of limitations prior to Tuesday’s arrest announcement; Ikram was attacked on March 17, 2021. She was returning from her job at CVS when a man in a ski mask rushed up behind her and threw sulfuric acid in her face.
Nafiah Ikram is pictured before (left) and after the attack. (Obtained by NYDN; CBS New York)
The attacker sped away in a red Nissan Altima, but that was the only clue investigators had for several years.
Following a tip from the community, authorities began investigating Jennings and found the 2015 Nissan Altima outside his Brooklyn home, officials said Tuesday at a press conference.
They also obtained his internet search history from the minutes after the attack, which included: “how do I remove sulfuric acid from my cars fabric” and “acid attack, Franklin Square, Long Island” before any details were publicly released, authorities said.
Additionally, Jennings released a rap song under the stage name “YungBludPrince” in 2023 titled “Obsidian.” In the track, he rapped about sneaking up behind someone and throwing acid in their face.
Jennings was charged with two counts of first-degree assault, possession of a noxious matter and weapons possession and pleaded not guilty Tuesday at his arraignment. He was ordered held without bail.
Cops did not publicly speculate on the motive for the attack. Initially, Ikram’s family said they did not believe it was motivated by her Pakistani heritage. Another of Jennings’ internet searches was allegedly, “Hammurabi’s Law — eye for an eye.”