A mother has been charged with murder in the stabbings of two small children in a
Bronx apartment, police said Monday.
Dimone Fleming, 22, is accused of killing 11-month-old Octavius Fleming-Canada and 3-year-old Dashawn Fleming, who were found with multiple stab wounds on Saturday in the apartment in the Mount Hope neighborhood were the family had been living. The children were pronounced dead at a hospital.
Fleming, the boys' mother, was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and arrested there Sunday, police said in a news release. It wasn't clear if Fleming had an attorney who could comment on the charges against her.
Fleming’s father, Dwane Fleming, told the Daily News that his daughter was suffering from postpartum depression, a condition the young mother had been hoping to treat.
“Dimone was going through some stuff,” Dwane Fleming said. “And my sister said she will take the kids and that Dimone is going to the hospital and we’ll get some help for that. Dimone wanted to get treatment for herself.”
Another family member told the newspaper that Fleming had recently become obsessed about demons.
“She thought the kids were devils. She said she was afraid of them,” said Casey Canada, Octavius’ great-aunt, who looked after both boys. Canada said Fleming loved her children but “she just snapped.”
The Daily News reported that Octavius’ father, Columbus Canada, 31, told police he had been staying in his car after getting into a fight with Fleming the night before, and returned home Saturday night to find the boys’ lifeless bodies.