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A "Fun Friday' outing at a Long Beach park turned tragic when an elementary school teacher was fatally stabbed in front of her students.
Kellye Taylor, 53, taught at Huntington Academy School, a private elementary school on E. Spaulding Street, the Press Telegram reports.
She was in Orizaba Park across the street from the school watching her students play around 1:30 p.m. on Friday when a man walked up to her and stabbed her in the neck, according to her sister, Pamela Huffman. Children ran to the school to notify Huffman, whose family owns and operates the school.
Long Beach police spokesman Aaron Eaton said Steven Brown, 50, of Long Beach was arrested a few blocks from the park. Eaton said Brown was the father of four of Taylor's grandchildren, who were in Taylor's custody.
"How could they do something like this in front of these babies?" Huffman said to the Press Telegram. "All I could do was run to her. I saw her slip away. I knew she wasn't going to make it." Taylor died later at a hospital, police say.
"She loved children, and she loved being around children. She loved teaching children, and that's what she did," said Vanessa Kelly, the victim's sister, told ABC 7. "I don't know why he did what he did," said Kelly of Brown.
Counselors will be on hand for students and staff Monday when school resumes, Huffman said.
"These babies are not going to want to go back to that park," she told the Press Telegram. "That was our park. Our park. Now what are we going to do?"
Brown, meanwhile is being held at the Long Beach city jail in lieu of $1 million bail, according to City News Service. A weapon was recovered between the park, which is at the intersection of Spaulding Street and Orizaba Avenue, and where Brown was taken into custody at Anaheim Street and Redondo Avenue, CNS reports.
