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An “erratic” mother was arrested for allegedly stabbing her two young children to death in their New York City apartment – after police missed the toddlers’ bodies on their first visit to the crime scene.
Dimone Fleming, 22, is suspected of stabbing her three-year-old son Deshawn and 11-month-old Octavius to death with a knife before hiding them in the bathtub in the Bronx.
Police arrested Fleming, who was found “freakish and naked” before realizing the two youths had been stabbed multiple times in the neck and torso.
The horrific incident occurred around 7:20 p.m. Saturday in a third-floor apartment of a family shelter near Mount Hope. Emergency services were called to the scene twice – and it was only on the second trip that they found the young children dead.
Witnesses who lived in the building told DailyMail.com that they saw the frantic mother holding her head and screaming, “What have I done? What have I done?’ in the hallway just before the police arrived.
The children’s father, who found his lifeless children in the filled bathtub, had had an argument with Fleming the day before. He left home a day early and had stayed in his car overnight, DailyMail.com understands.
Fleming, who has not yet been officially identified as a suspect, remains inside guardianship as an interested party in the case. No charges have been filed.
Dimone Fleming, 22, pictured with her oldest son Deshawn, 3, who was found lifeless in the bathtub of their Bronx home with his younger brother. Police were initially called to the scene due to Fleming’s “erratic” behavior. They took her away, but apparently didn’t realize that her sons were dead in the bathroom. It was not until the children’s father arrived that the police were informed of the children’s tragic deaths
The 22-year-old mother was taken into custody around 7.50pm after officers were initially dispatched to the residence following a phone call complaining about her erratic behaviour.
Upon arrival, police said, they found a naked woman in the kitchen setting items on fire. They remained at the scene for 30 minutes before taking her into custody – apparently unaware that the children were dead in the bathroom.
She was taken to a nearby hospital for examination.
Just 10 minutes after the officers left, the boys’ father returned to find the two children unresponsive in the apartment, and called the officers back a second time around 7:55 p.m.
Before they arrived, neighbors helped the father get the boys out of the tub — which was filled with water and covered with a sheet — and tried to resuscitate them, DailyMail.com understands.
They were transported to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where they were pronounced dead, according to police.
The mother is currently in custody as a person of interest, Patrol Borough Bronx Deputy Chief Louis De Ceglie said Saturday at 11 p.m. outside the building at 246 Echo Place.
“Officers arrived and found a 22-year-old woman naked in the third-floor apartment behaving irrationally,” chief de Ceglie told reporters outside the building.
De Ceglie said the initial report received by officers had warned of a “woman behaving erratically, but non-violently,” with no weapons.
“The officers took the woman into custody without incident and awaited the response of the ambulance.”
Officers were thought to have missed the boys’ bodies on their first stop at the house because they had been stashed in the bathroom at the time of their response.
At some point, before police arrived a second time, the boys’ panicked father made an impassioned plea for help in discovering his sons’ bodies.
Attempts to resuscitate the children were ultimately unsuccessful
The building at 246 Echo Place provides public housing for low-income families. Neighbors told of the horror that unfolded as the father ran through the halls as the boys’ bloodied bodies cried for help
Officers were thought to have missed the boys’ bodies on their first stop at the residence because they had been stashed in the bathroom at the time of their response. Officers had initially received a complaint about a woman behaving “erratically.”
Their 22-year-old mother was taken into custody around 7:50 p.m., police said, after the revelation of the arrest came about half an hour before the bodies were discovered
That call was reportedly heard by a neighbor one floor up on the fourth floor, who helped the distraught father get the children out of the bath when he found them and administered CPR.
However, attempts to resuscitate the children were ultimately unsuccessful, despite police administering it.
The eldest son’s godfather, who is also friends with the children’s father, told DailyMail.com that he was one of those who tried to revive the toddlers during the ordeal.
He said the children were already bloodied and that he “knew they were dead,” but tried to help as much as he could.
Police found one of the children on the bed and the other on the floor in the apartment.
The coroner will determine the cause of death, police said.