An overflowing tub full of clothes hid the bodies of two NYPD children
The murders of two young New York children stabbed to death were hidden under a torrent of clothing in a bathtub full of water, police say.
The bodies of the boys – Deshawn Fleming, 3, and Octavius Canada, 11 months – were found by their father on Saturday evening at a homeless shelter in the Bronx, police said at New York Post. The grisly discovery came nearly an hour after cops rushed their mother to the hospital.
“Despite the best efforts of officers, both children succumbed to their injuries,” NYPD Deputy Chief Louis De Ceglie said at a press conference.
Officers had responded to a 911 call around 7:20 p.m. over a carbon monoxide alarm to find the boys’ mother, Dimone Fleming, 22, naked and acting erratically, police said at the Job. According to New York Daily News, Fleming had attempted to burn “rocks” in the oven – potentially charcoal – which is likely what triggered the alarms.
While at the third-floor apartment, they turned off the running water to the tub full of clothes, not knowing the boys were there. Fleming was taken to a local hospital and officers were told the boys were with their father, who was on the fourth floor of the building when the first call was made.
“There was nothing obvious to suggest there were dead children in there,” an NYPD source told the Job. “There was no blood.”
Once back at the apartment, the father discovered the bodies of the boys – with stab wounds to their necks – and frantically called for help, according to the Job. He and building staff soon called the police again, who arrived just before 8 p.m. to find the father trying to perform CPR on them. Officers and emergency personnel also attempted to resuscitate the children and took them to another local hospital, but the children were pronounced dead.
“The officers who responded – I think they did a great job,” De Ceglie said. “It’s something they’re going to have to live with and think about, probably for the rest of their lives.”
Fleming is considered a person of interest in the case and is in custody, although no charges were filed Sunday afternoon. The boy’s father cooperated with the police, according to the Job, and said he left the apartment after a fight with Fleming the day before and slept in his car.
Witnesses told the Job they saw Fleming running around in circles and acting irrationally, mumbling to herself outside the building.
“She walked and stopped, and turned around, and walked and stopped, both hands behind her head! Saying, ‘What have I done?!, What have I done?!’ “says Francis Pimentel, who was waiting for a taxi outside the building. “I went up to her and said, ‘Miss, are you okay? and she stopped and looked at me, her face was crazy and kept walking back and forth[ing] and saying, ‘What have I done?!, What have I done?!’ “
Although police responded to a previous domestic incident involving Fleming, they had no history of mental health issues, according to the Daily News.
Neighbor Charlotte Obiri, 47, said The New York Times the image of the boys being abducted from the building stuck in her brain and left her “vomiting”.
“They took the baby out, and they were working on him – and then the little boy, they took him out on a stretcher, and he looked lifeless,” Obiri said. “He was naked and he looked lifeless. I still see the picture in my head.
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