She stood there, injured and holding a knife, outside her Florida home.
That image is horrifying enough, but nothing compared to what police say they found inside.
All three of that woman’s children were unresponsive when officers encountered them Friday evening, including a 7-year-old girl who was reported dead soon thereafter, according to the Palm Bay, Florida, police department. One of them, a 6-year-old boy, died later Friday night. A 5-month-old boy is seriously injured.
Their mother, identified by police as Jessica McCarty, was “uncooperative” while being “taken into custody,” police Chief Mark Renkens told reporters.
On Saturday, Palm Bay police announced on the department’s Facebook page that McCarty was being charged with two counts of murder in connection with her children’s deaths. She is also facing an attempted murder charge regarding her infant son, who was in critical condition Saturday at a nearby hospital.
After initially being taken to a hospital after suffering what police called “non-life threatening injuries,” McCarty was moved to the Brevard County Detention Center, where she’s being held without bond.
“A crime like this is beyond words,” police Capt. Josh Resh said. “It is unthinkable that someone could do this to innocent children.”
Authorities’ first indication of trouble came in a 911 call just before 6 p.m. Friday from someone indicating children had been killed or injured. The father of one of the children placed his own call to police a short time later, after arriving home to the grim scene.
Police did not immediately explain exactly how the children had been injured.
Regardless, the episode shook those in the victims’ neighborhood in Palm Bay, which is about 70 miles southeast of Orlando on Florida’s Atlantic coast.
It started with the sirens and about 10 armed officers coming down the street, telling him to get inside, neighbor Davion Lewis CNN affiliate WESH.
But for neighbor Becky Johnson, learning why they had come was even more horrifying.
“It’s inexcusable, unthinkable, … shocking,” Johnson said. “You think of your own kids.”