By Associated Press
A 27-year-old mother of six, including a 15-year-old, was arrested and booked for homicide in the deaths of her two daughters in St. Paul, Minnesota. Both children — ages 15 months and 3 years — were stabbed to death. The mother also had stab wounds, relatives said.
The Hmong American woman, whose name has not been released, was in critical condition after an incident at their home. She has a history of mental illness. According to Ramsey County court documents, she had been committed to hospitals three times in the past four years. She suffered from schizophrenia, paranoia and hallucinations in which she heard voices telling her to kill herself and others. She was under court orders to take antipsychotic medication, the records show.
St. Paul police said the family did not have a history of violence or of police calls to the residence.
According to relatives, the husband left his two youngest children at home with his wife when he went to pick up four older children who had been taking Hmong language classes at a nearby community center. When he returned about 6:30 p.m., the front and back doors were locked, a brother said. The father broke in and found at least one of the girl’s bodies, he said.
The woman’s 46-year-old husband — the children’s father — was being interviewed at police headquarters late on July 17.
Telisha Estes, who lives two doors down from the family, said that shortly after 6 p.m., another neighbor ran to her door yelling for her to “Call 911, there’s blood everywhere and the kids are hollering and screaming.
“By the time I called 911, the police were pulling in the parking lot,” Estes said. “The kids were terrified running up and down the block.”
Estes said when paramedics brought the woman out on a stretcher, her upper body was covered in blood. She said the man was brought out later by police. He appeared calm, was not handcuffed and didn’t have any blood on him.
The killings happened on the opposite side of the same housing development where another Asian American, Khoua Her, killed her six children, aged 6 to 11, and attempted to kill herself on Sept. 2, 1998. She reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and was sentenced to 50 years in prison in January 1999.
KaShia Moua, director of the Hmong Women’s Circle, said she’s overwhelmed and depressed by another act of violence in her community, something she and others have worked hard to prevent.
“What’s happening to all the work we’re putting into that?” Moua said. “I’m feeling pretty hopeless.’’
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