In a tragic incident that has shaken a Florida community, a man stands accused of the brutal murder of two young children, followed by setting their mobile home on fire. The victims, aged 9 and 7, were inside the trailer when their mother heroically attempted to save them, but her efforts were tragically in vain.

As the flames engulfed the trailer, neighbors witnessed the mother’s desperate attempt to rescue her children. “She went into the trailer trying to get them. That’s a mother’s love,” recounted John Wenzel, a neighbor, in an interview with local CBS affiliate WEAR. “She went inside the house trying to get her kids, but [it was] too hot.”

The accused, John Henry Walston Jr., 27, allegedly committed heinous acts against the children, 9-year-old Vayden Orum and 7-year-old Rayden Smith, inside his trailer at the Grand Oak Mobile Home Park in Escambia County. Police reports indicate that Walston sexually assaulted one of the children before taking both their lives.

Following the murders, Walston is said to have set the trailer alight in the early hours of Friday morning and fled the scene. Although the mother survived her daring rescue attempt, she was hospitalized with severe burn injuries. Authorities apprehended Walston after he received medical treatment for his own injuries.

Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons emphasized the premeditated nature of the crime in a statement shared via a video on Facebook. “These children were not killed because of the fire,” he stated. “[Walston] assaulted one, then killed them both before saving himself.”

Walston reportedly lives at the mobile home with his own family, including two children. Tyler Smith, the father of Rayden Smith and stepfather of Vayden Orum, told WEAR that he has “known him for a couple of years” and that the victims also lived in the mobile home park.

Smith said his kids were allegedly staying over at Walston’s trailer with his own children during the incident.

“How can you expect any human being to do this?” Smith told WEAR. “John, I hope they give you hell in prison, because you better be glad they found you before I did.”

Walston has been charged with two counts of premeditated murder, one count of sexual assault on a victim under 12, and one count of arson. His first court date has been set for Nov. 26 and he’s being held until then without bond.

“I don’t know what else I can say about this terrible event except for please hug your children,” Simmons, the sheriff, concluded in his Facebook video.

The victims’ grandmother, Lisa Pinegar, described their deaths as a “bad dream” while speaking to WEAR over the weekend. “A real bad dream,” she said, recalling how the kids had a sibling who talked to her over the phone about what happened.

“He said, ‘Mommy has been life flighted to the hospital. My brother and sister is no longer here, they’re dead,’” Pinegar recounted. “He just kept telling me over and over and I didn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it.”