On Saturday evening, according to police, a three-year-old boy and an eleven-month-old boy, were found stabbed to death in a Bronx family shelter apartment.
Deputy Chief Louis De Ceglie of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), in a news briefing, told reporters that the children, tragically, were found with multiple stab wounds to their necks and torsos, at 246 Echo Street in the Mount Hope neighborhood. The mother of the children has been placed in custody and is a person of interest.
Strangely, before the tragic finding, police responded to a report at the same location at around 7:20 p.m. of a woman who was behaving erratically, lighting things on fire in her kitchen however was noted to be non-violent and had no weapons on her. The 24-year-old, naked female was found, inside the apartment on the third floor, where she was “acting irrationally.” Without incident, she was taken into custody and transported to St. Barnabas hospital without incident at 7:50 p.m. A family friend told police that, the woman’s children were with her father.
Five minutes after the woman was brought to the hospital, police received a second 911 call reporting that two small children were unresponsive at the same location on 246 Echo Street. Returning to the family shelter, police found one of the boys on the floor and the other on the bed with multiple stab wounds. A family member and NYPD officers attempted to resuscitate the three-year-old and the eleven-month-old, before they were transported to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
According to the New York Post police source, the two children were believed to have been in the bathtub the first-time police arrived at the apartment. Chief De Ceglie said, that the mother, was later taken into custody as a person of interest but has not been arrested, adding that an incident had occurred at the same location in the past, but it happened a couple of years ago. Charlotte Obiri, a neighbor told the Post, that she heard the couple fighting earlier in the day, adding that later she heard the father screaming “hysterically” and saw him carrying the boys, who were covered in blood. Obiri related-
“They were dead. They were dead. There was blood everywhere, it covered them,” “It’s horrible. It’s heartbreaking.”
- Charlotte Obiri, Neighbor
Commending the officers who responded to the incident, Chief De Cecile noted that the horror of this incident would stick with them for a long time. He said-
“The police officers who responded, I think they did a great job,”…adding “It’s something that they are going to have to live with and think about, probably for the rest of their lives.”
-Deputy Chief Louis De Ceglie
There are no words to describe the heartbreak of such a tragedy. May God comfort all involved, especially the first responders, and may those who are family to those two little boys, find a measure of peace as they grieve this unbelievably senseless loss.
“Life is the only thing which can never be replaced when lost.”
-Lailah Gifty Akita