Morgan Freeman’s Step-Granddaughter E'Dena Hines Stabbed To Death In New York

The step-granddaughter of actor Morgan Freeman was stabbed to death in New York City early Sunday, police said. E'Dena Hines, 33, granddaughter of Freeman's first wife, Jeanette Adair Bradshaw, was taken to Harlem Hospital where she was pronounced dead, People reported, citing a police statement.

Police responded to a call of a stabbing in Washington Heights just before 3 a.m. in Manhattan. When officers arrived at the 400 block of West 162nd Street near St. Nicholas Avenue, they found Hines lying in the street, stabbed multiple times in the torso, police said.

A 30-year-old man was arrested and taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, officials said.

"The world will never know her artistry in talent, and how much she had to offer," Freeman said in a statement. "Her friends and family were fortunate enough to have known what she meant as a person. Her star will continue to shine bright in our hearts, thoughts and prayers. May she rest in peace."

Hines, an actor and writer, studied for three years at New York University's Graduate Acting Program and also taught underprivileged youth in Memphis, Tennessee, her website says.

The actress recently blogged about her life, saying the words "energetic," "loud" and "animated" are the first three words that pop up into people's heads when they think about her.

"In high school, my theater teacher deemed me 'the pistol' and I took it as an insult. I couldn't understand why other people seemed to have nicknames that connoted a personality and mine was an object. One girl was the fair queen, another was the peacemaker and I was a steel gun," Hines said in her blog.

"I thought I was the group cheerleader, giving them what they needed to keep going cause I was blessed with exuberant amounts of energy, but, I was more exhausted when it counted," she wrote. "While everyone else would be relaxing on breaks, I was entertaining or so I thought. I also became aware that my voice was always heard above others which meant they all knew about me, but I didn't actually know a lot about them.

"Ahhhhh. ... There is something beautiful in knowing you can find your stillness and be silent, but you can also be a ball of power," she said.