NEW YORK CITY (WPIX) — Two young boys were stabbed and killed in a Bronx apartment Saturday night and their 22-year-old mother is in police custody, authorities said.
The 11-month-old and 3-year-old victims were found with multiple stab wounds to the neck and body in the bathroom of an apartment in Mount Hope at around 8 p.m., police said. The brothers were discovered in the bathtub covered in clothes with the water running and overflowing onto the bathroom floor, according to police. They were unresponsive and not breathing.
The boys’ father and officers tried to give the children CPR, but they could not be saved. The boys were taken to the hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries.
“I heard the father screaming in the hallways, ‘Help me! Help me!’ That’s when he brought the two boys, lifeless, covered in blood,” said Shannon Holifield, a neighbor of the family. “It’s horrible…I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight…it’s very sad.”
Forty minutes prior to the tragic discovery, police had been called to the same apartment, described by authorities as a family shelter, for reports of an emotionally disturbed person and found the young mom acting erratic and trying to burn items, according to the NYPD.
They found the woman on the third floor and took her into custody without incident. She was transported to a hospital, police said.
Shortly after, the father found the boys dead in the bathtub, and police were called to the apartment for a second time, authorities said.
The mother remained in police custody but had not been arrested, as of Sunday morning.
A medical examiner will determine the cause of death.