8-year-old killed and two adults injured in stabbing in Queens

It was just after 5 p.m. on July 4 when a bleeding woman staggered out of a Queens apartment building, begging for help.

She had been stabbed in the back.

When police from the nearby 103rd Precinct arrived, they found a gruesome sight in a fifth-floor apartment: An older son was holding a knife to his father, a younger boy was lying nearby, dying from his injuries, police said.

Officers said the older son had his father in a headlock and told him repeatedly in English and Spanish to drop the knife. When he didn’t, officers fired a shot, hitting the older son, who then dropped the knife, said John Chell, patrol chief of the New York Police Department.

The suspect’s injuries are currently being treated at a nearby hospital.

“This was a tragic and horrific event,” Chief Chell said Thursday evening at a hastily convened press conference outside the apartment building at the corner of Sutphin Boulevard and 94th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens.

Police officials did not speculate on the motive of the attack that killed the younger boy (8 years old). Neither the names of the family members nor the exact nature of their relationships were disclosed.

Police officials said the investigation is ongoing. “This is a domestic incident,” Police Chief Chell said. “There is a connection to everyone here, and we’re going to figure it out.”

The 29-year-old woman and the 43-year-old father are expected to recover from their injuries, police said. An 8-month-old girl who was also in the apartment was unharmed, police said.

Kaz Daughtry, deputy chief of operations, said police officers who arrived at the scene were shocked by the news that the boy had succumbed to his injuries: “One of them said, ‘We wish we could have come a little earlier to save this young life.'”