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Cancer-Stricken Brooklyn Mom Allegedly Confesses To Killing 9-Yr-Old In Murder-Suicide Attempt
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 7, 2012
Modified Jul 7, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 7, 2012
Modified Jul 7, 2012
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A Brooklyn mom allegedly told police that she killed her 9-year-old son and then attempted to commit suicide by pills. The 40-year-old mother, whose name hasn't been released, called 911 just before 11 p.m. Friday; when cops arrived at her Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, they found the child dead of apparent trauma to the head. Neighbor Maribel Otero told DNAInfo the mother suffered from cancer: "She had cancer that was eating her up alive, and she was getting smaller and smaller," she said.
The mother was still alive when police arrived; she was taken to Woodhull Medical Center, where she is currently under observation. Neighbors said she had a violent temper which got worse as her illness progressed; they also said she talked openly about seeking treatment for stomach cancer. "Sometimes she pulled on her hair," said Raymond Espinal, store manager at nearby Tony's Grocery, She was smoking too much. No one smokes straight cigars." He added that the son came in to the store often: "Sometimes he'd come in and his face would look upset, so I'd give him something," like a treat, said Espinal. "I don't know what happened to the boy, he was really nice."
It's unclear if the father of the boy still lived with the family—neighbors told DNAInfo that he was around, and would complain about his wife's unpredictable temper, while the Daily News implied they lived apart, because the child was set to spend this weekend with him.
This comes a day after another apparent murder-suicide attempt, when mom Lisette Bamenga allegedly killed her two children with "a fatal drink containing chemical de-icer before slitting her wrists and turning on the gas on her stove."
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Bedford-Stuyvesant
brooklyn
death
murder-suicide
police
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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