Bronx

NYC Mother Charged in Stabbings of Her 2 Boys; Family Tries Making Sense of Killings

Police were told a woman was trying to burn items in the kitchen and found her in the third-floor apartment “acting irrational”

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A mother has been charged with murder in the stabbings of two small children in a Bronx apartment, police said Monday.

Dimone Fleming, 22, is accused of killing 11-month-old Octavius Fleming-Canada and 3-year-old Dashawn Fleming, who were found with multiple stab wounds on Saturday in the apartment in the Mount Hope neighborhood were the family had been living. The children were pronounced dead at a hospital.

Fleming, the boys' mother, was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and arrested there Sunday, police said in a news release. It wasn't clear if Fleming had an attorney who could comment on the charges against her.

The boy's grandfather said he spoke to Fleming just an hour before the unthinkable happened. He's been struggling, along with the rest of the Bronx community, to make sense of what happened.

"Something's not adding up here," Dwane Fleming told News 4 by phone from Pennsylvania. he told News 4 by phone Sunday. "I called her about an hour, hour and a half before it even happened. She let on that she wasn't comfortable in her relationship."

Authorities have said the baby boys were found in a bathtub, stabbed multiple times. Officers responded to a report of a “female acting erratic, but non-violent, with no weapons” around 7:20 p.m., Deputy Chief Louis De Ceglie of Patrol Borough Bronx said during a press briefing late Saturday.

Police were told a woman was trying to burn items in the kitchen and found her in the third-floor apartment “acting irrational,” De Ceglie said.

She was taken into custody without incident until the arrival of an ambulance, which transported her to St. Barnabas Hospital for evaluation at about 7:50 p.m.

De Ceglie said officers and a family member tried to resuscitate the children while awaiting an ambulance, which took them to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center where they died.

"It’s about two kids that got murdered. But the way I think about it, I’m losing three," Fleming said.

Heartbreaking new developments in a tradegy rocking a neighborhood in the Bronx after two children were found stabbed to death. News 4's Adam Harding reports.

Brittany Hudson is close with the family. Standing near the growing memorial outside the Mount Hope apartment complex, she still can't believe what happened.

"The 11-month-old was new to the world, but the 3-year-old he was very smart, always sharing with my sons, that's how they became close," Hudson said.

The city's Department of Social Services, which runs the family shelter where Fleming lived, issued a statement: "This is an incredibly heart-breaking and shocking tragedy. We offer our deepest condolences to all who have been impacted and stand ready to provide them with any support they need during this incredibly difficult time."

The boys' grandfather still does not know what happened, and said his daughter has never shown any behavior like what's she been accused of doing.

"My grandbabies are innocent, they didn't deserve this. I want justice to be done and served. And even if my daughter did this, she has to pay the consequences -- but I'm not going to stop loving her as a father," he said.

Copyright NBC New York/Associated Press
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