3 Infants Among 5 Stabbed At Unlicensed New York City Day Care
NEW YORK (CBS News) -- Five people were stabbed, including three infants, at a home day care center in Flushing, Queens, authorities said Friday morning.
Police found the suspect, a 52-year-old woman, with self-inflicted wounds to her wrists.
CBS News reports the suspect was taken into custody. Police said two knives — a butcher knife and meat cleaver — were recovered at the scene.
The stabbings occurred around 3:45 a.m. at a home operating as an unlicensed day-care center on 161st Street, CBS New York reports. It's unclear whether it was a legal child care facility.
Police were called to the home when neighbors reported yelling.
"He told me he heard screaming. He lives right next door over there, which is across from the area where the crime took place," resident Alan He told CBS2's Natalie Duddridge.
Three infants – girls ranging in age from three days to one month old – were injured.
One of the wounded infants was in serious condition but expected to survive. Six other infants inside the home were unharmed.
A father was stabbed in the leg, and a female co-worker was stabbed multiple times in her torso, police said.
The victims were rushed to area hospitals in critical but stable condition. Police said one of the infants was more seriously injured than the others.
Police said they found the suspect unconscious in the basement with self-inflected wounds to her wrists. She was taken into custody and is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at New York-Presbyterian/Queens hospital.
"She was one of the workers in the place, and I think she was mentally ill. It was early in the morning and she kind of lost it. That's all we know," said Assemblyman Ron Kim.
Investigators are using Chinese translators to interview the people who live there.
"Part of the building is living quarters, they're apartments, multiple families," NYPD Assistant Chief Juanita Holmes said.
Police said they were called to the home once before in 2011 for reports of children screaming.
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