Mother arrested after police say she cut wrists of 3 small children on Chicago's South Side
A woman was in police custody Wednesday evening after police said she brutally attacked her three young children in Chicago's Greater Englewood neighborhood.
The children were all being treated at the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital Wednesday night, after police said their mother attacked them for unknown reasons by cutting their wrists. They were all in serious condition late Wednesday.
A neighbor jumped in when the mother came outside bloody and pleading for help.
Police late Wednesday roped off the entrance to an apartment building in the 7100 block of South Harvard Avenue. Inside an apartment in the building at 5:44 p.m. Wednesday, police said a 1-year-old girl, a 3-year-old boy, and a 5-year-old boy were seriously injured by their mother.
"They were bloody," said a neighbor, Devaughen Stringfellow. "They were bloody, man."
Stringfellow pulled up on the block in his tow truck right when the mother came running outside.
"She kept screaming like: 'I need help! Help me! My baby! I called the police! They didn't come!'" Stringfellow said. "So, at first, I wasn't going to put them in my truck with the blood — but I threw them all in the truck."
He drove the mother and children to the nearest hospital, unaware of how they were injured. But their cuts were obvious.
"You could tell the little one was cut right here, because he was bleeding," said Stringfellow. "The other one was bleeding from the side, and the one she had, he was just bloody."
By the time Stringfellow got to the ER at St. Bernard Hospital, he said he couldn't believe the words the mother told police.
"We get in there. They were like, 'She did it,'" Stringfellow said. "Then that's when the security guard grabbed her and took her in the room."
Police dispatch audio said the woman got aggressive and fought with staff members in the ER.
Police said the mother intentionally slashed the wrists of all three children, and with dried blood stains on his pants, the neighbor said he is more hurt when he reflects on what the oldest child told his mother during that ride.
"The little boy was in the truck like: 'Mama, it's going to be all right. It's going to be all right. Don't cry,'" Stringfellow said, "and when I got there and she said that, I really wanted to just — man, you know, we've got rules and laws now. But I was hurt."
"It shows the resilience of a child," added Street Pastor Donovan Price. "Even the Bible says, 'And a child shall lead.'"
Witnesses said the mother kept repeating that she could not raise the children alone.
Pastor Price said this should serve as a reminder that we all must check up on single mothers and remind them of the resources available.
"The mother seems like she just wanted help, help, help," said Price, "but you never know what to do, and you want to reach folks before they reach that breaking point — because this is a breaking-point situation."
Police did take the mother into custody, and charges were pending late Wednesday. Meanwhile, everyone was hoping the three children would recover physically from the attack.
