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Three Elementary School Children Found Dead With Stab Wounds In Car
Three elementary school-aged children were found dead with stab wounds inside a car parked across the street from a South Los Angeles school. A man with a stab wound was also found in the front seat and taken to a hospital.
LAPD officers responded to the 300 block of East 32nd Street around 7:15 a.m. on Wednesday morning after receiving a call about an assault with a deadly weapon. When they arrived, they found the three children dead in the backseat of a Nissan SUV. Although the identities of the victims have not been identified, the LAPD says they were all brothers of elementary school age, between the ages of 8 and 12. Although unconfirmed, the man in the front seat was possibly their father.
"We believe him to be the father of the kids, but we do not know that for a fact," said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.
"Many of us are parents," LAPD detective Meghan Aguilar told the L.A. Times. "It's hard enough to see a child be a victim of any crime, much less three children murdered." She described the scene as "very emotional" for officers and first-responders.
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According to Aguilar, a knife was recovered at the scene. "We are not searching for a suspect at this time," she said.
The man in the front seat was taken to the hospital in critical condition. An official told NBC Los Angeles that the man was suffering from a self-inflicted stab wound to the chest.
An LAPD officer told KTLA that the mother of the children was already contacted by police and that she had a fourth child that was in daycare when the deaths were reported. They are both safe at a police station, according to the officer. According to Chief beck, they believe the biological mother of the children is deceased, and that the woman at the station is their stepmother.
The scene is across the street from Dolores Huerta Elementary School, but according to CBSLA, campus is not on lockdown.
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