Adults and Infants Stabbed At Day Care

[Guest Dwight C]

 

A 3-day-old and 2 other infants were stabbed at a New York day care center, police say

 

A newborn and two infants were among five people stabbed early Friday at an unlicensed day care center in New York by an employee who then tried to kill herself, officials said.

The victims -- two girls and a boy, plus two adults -- were in critical but stable condition Friday at local hospitals, New York police said.

The babies range in age from 3 days to 1 month, New York police Assistant Chief Juanita Holmes told reporters Friday.

Nine babies, along with some of their parents, had been in the center during the attack, she said.

 

 

"There was one child with more serious injuries than the other two," Holmes said. "At one point, we thought she might have been likely (to die), but, thank God, she was upgraded." 

The father of one injured child and a woman who works at the Queens day care were also attacked, according to police. The man was stabbed in the leg, and the woman was stabbed repeatedly in the torso, Holmes said.

The suspect, a 52-year-old woman employed at the center, was taken to a hospital after slashing her wrist, police said. She is in custody.

Two knives were recovered, police said.

The motive in the 3:45 a.m. attack was unclear, police spokesman Lt. Thomas Antonetti said.

The red brick, multifamily house on a tree-lined street in the Flushing area of Queens appeared to be used as a day care center, though state officials said it was not licensed.

"We have seen some paperwork indicating that it is a day care," Holmes said, adding the documents "indicated that they were a nursery."

Part of building served as "living quarters," she said.

But the site is not listed as the location of a licensed or regulated child care program with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, agency spokeswoman Monica Mahaffey said in a statement.

"OCFS is saddened by this horrific situation and investigating it as a possible illegal operation," she said.

State-regulated child care programs are prohibited from caring for infants younger than than 6 weeks old unless they receive prior approval from OCFS, the statement said.

"Any request must include physician medical approval and detail the extenuating circumstances necessitating such a request," the statement said.

The city's Buildings Department had received several complaints against the property, including the possibility that it was being illegally used as a hotel, records show. Department inspectors were unable to gain access to the home on several occasions.

The city had received a complaint in 2011 of "screaming children" at the residence, Holmes said, noting that the call came to a city hotline.

Of the children present during Friday's assault, five were girls and four were boys, she said.

 

 

[Guest Dwight C]

Police identify a suspect in connection with a stabbing that injured five people, including a newborn and two infants at a day care center in New York.

The suspect — 52-year-old Yu Fen Wang — was found by authorities in the basement of the facility with a self-inflicted slashed wrist.

One baby sustained more serious injuries, but all of the victims remain in critical yet stable condition after the incident early Friday morning.

Four other children were removed from the building uninjured and are under observation.

“Upon their arrival, the uniformed members of the service found several people with stab wounds,” explained Assistant Police Chief Juanita Holmes. “Three of the people were infants, ranging from the age of three days to one month old — one adult female suffered multiple stab wounds to the torso and one adult male received a stab wound, suffered an injury to the leg.”

According to police, two knives were recovered from the day care — a bloody meat cleaver and butcher knife.

The suspect is now in police custody with charges pending and no motive has been confirmed.