2 Young Boys Stabbed to Death; Their Mother Is a ‘Person of Interest’

Two young children were found stabbed to death in a New York family shelter Saturday night, and police say the boys’ mother is a person of interest in their deaths.

Officers first responded to a 911 call shortly before 7:30 p.m. and found the mother in the third floor apartment “acting irrational.” NYPD Deputy Chief Louis De Ceglie said the 24-year-old woman had been setting fires in the kitchen area.

Police took her to a hospital for an evaluation, but they received another 911 call less than an hour later reporting two unresponsive children at the same location in the Bronx. Upon returning to the apartment, they found a 3-year-old boy and an 11-month-old boy, both with multiple stab wounds to the neck and torso.

The boys were taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. Before the officers left, de Ceglie said, a family friend told them the mother’s children were with their father.

Neighbors who lived down the hall told WABC they heard the boys’ parents arguing earlier in the evening. Then, later, they heard the father calling out for help.

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“He was screaming hysterically. He was screaming, ‘Help me!’ And I came and opened my door and I see him coming down the hall with the two boys in his arms,” said Shannon Holyfield. “They were dead, they were dead. There was blood everywhere.”

De Ceglie said the mother remains in custody at the hospital but has not been arrested. The father is not in custody.

Police have not released the names of any of those involved.

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