Neighbors Hold Vigil For Children Stabbed To Death
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - Around 50 people showed up to Flanagan Park in Colorado Springs to remember two young children who police say were killed by their 19-year-old brother.
Raquel Rodriguez's kids went to school with the five and seven-year-old victims. She says explaining what happened to the victims is both hard and heartbreaking.
"They're kind of confused and you just say something happened and they're not going to be back anymore. There's no easy way of saying it," she told CBS4.
Police say Malik Murphy stabbed and killed younger siblings early Tuesday morning as they slept.
The say his father, Jefferson Murphy, was also stabbed in the neck but is expected to survive and that Murphy's mother was the only one he didn't get to.
The elder Murphy told investigators he was asleep in bed with his wife and woke up to the sound of screaming in the basement.
"I'm a mother so I can only imagine what it was like for her to wake up and the next day she lost everything," said Brittany Weiser, who organized Tuesday night's vigil.
Malik Murphy told investigators he often has "homicidal ideations" and decided he was going to kill his family so he could be alone in the home.
He told detectives he purchased a knife at Walmart several months ago.
According to the affidavit, Murphy told detectives he believed he stabbed his brother and his sister three times each. He reportedly told police he planned to bury them in the backyard.
CBS4 has learned he was arrested earlier this year in Illinois for allegedly setting fire to his parents' car.
Murphy now faces charges that include first degree murder and attempted first degree murder.
Dominic Garcia anchors CBS4 News at 5 p.m. and reports for CBS4 News at 10 p.m. Connect with the Denver native on Twitter @cbs4dom & on Facebook.