SEATTLE — A Seattle mother accused of killing her 4-year-old son may face a charge of premeditated first-degree murder — a crime that carries a possible sentence of life in prison.
The 45-year-old woman declined to appear in court Friday. We is not naming her because she has not yet been formally charged.
Police were called to an apartment complex in Seattle’s Roosevelt neighborhood Thursday for reports of a woman experiencing a mental health crisis. According to court documents, neighbors told officers the woman had been running through the halls screaming that she “killed him.”
Officers found the woman’s 4-year-old son in a bathtub “fully clothed in about four inches of bloody water,” with a large kitchen knife nearby. Investigators said the boy had been stabbed one time in the chest.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the woman allegedly told police she had “sacrificed” her son because he was doing “odd things,” such as “licking countertops and jumping around.”
She also said he had autism.
Seattle Police Acting Assistant Chief of Patrol Operations Robert Brown said the case has been difficult for first responders to process.
“This is a very traumatic type of call to respond to,” Brown said, “particularly for the first responders. Stepping into a scene like that is very difficult. As a parent myself, it’s hard.”
Exactly what sort of mental health crisis the mother was experiencing remains unclear.
Neighbors said they are heartbroken it ended like this.
“It seems like this stuff keeps getting brushed under the rug,” one neighbor said. “Now we have a little boy who is no longer here with us, and it takes that to be noticed.”
The mother is being held in the King County Jail on $5 million bail.
If convicted she could face life in prison.
트위터 공유: 아들을 희생했다는 어머니 살인 혐의 직면