Mother suspected in daughter's death
>> Family and neighbors of a 10-year-old girl who was stabbed to death Monday in an East Oakland apartment were reeling Tuesday after officials confirmed the girl's mother is the suspect in the killing.
Neighbors and family interviewed by this news organization described the mother and daughter as inseparable but said the woman had struggled financially, had a recent history of marital troubles and did not appear to be herself lately.
“The entire family is in shock, we all can't believe it,” said the girl's aunt, Margarita Lorenzo.
Several neighbors reported hearing “roughhousing,” dogs yelping and barking, and screams from what sounded like a child coming from the apartment on the 4500 block of Bancroft Avenue, beginning about 10:30 a.m. Monday.
Neighbor Emma Sarabia, in an interview, said she heard a loud boom after a girl's muffled screams, followed by a woman saying, “Déjame, déjame!,” or leave me alone, leave me alone. After that, “it got real quiet,” Sarabia said.
About noon Monday, officers responding to a dispatch call found a paring knife outside the apartment building, forced their way into the upper-floor unit and found the girl unresponsive and bleeding from wounds to her neck. She was pronounced dead in the apartment.
The woman was found suffering from self-inflicted stab wounds and was taken to a hospital. A motive for the killing has not yet been released.
Authorities had not identified the girl or the woman as of Tuesday afternoon.
Tony Benavides and Violet O'Connell, who live next door, said the mother and child were very close and often seen side by side, whether it was out walking their dogs or on the way to
the 10-year-old's nearby elementary school.
But Benavides described the mother as struggling with “money problems, her living situation” and the aftermath of a separation from the girl's father, keeping “many side hustles” outside her job as a physical therapist in order to make ends meet.
The mother told Benavides on a recent night that she had been working at a hotel but was let go and not paid for the last hours of work. She told Benavides it was hard for her to work because “she always wanted to be” with the 10-year-old girl.
“It seemed like she was always going through a hard time,” Benavides said. “She was always doing her best and hustling trying to support herself and her kid. She was always teaching her how to be tough. She showed her how to cook and always told her, `one day I'm not going to be here and it's going to be up to you to take care of yourself.'”
But O'Connell and Benavides also said the mother's mental health seemed to be deteriorating and over the past few months she appeared more and more paranoid. They described seeing her staking out the apartment before parking her car and not turning on lights after coming home.
The 10-year-old's death has devastated O'Connell, Benavides and family members, some of whom live in
the building.
Lorenzo lives right below the apartment where her niece was killed and described the girl as happy. She loved playing with neighborhood kids and with her 17-year-old cousin, who she would play dolls with, the aunt said.
“(The father) is very, very upset right now, he couldn't stop crying when I saw him,” she said of her brother. “I can't even compute it in my head, it's just a shock, my mind is blank right now.”
Benavides said he will miss seeing the little girl running around the building with her dogs or playing on her mother's phone at the foot of the apartment stairs.
“I wish she'd had more of a chance, she was so sweet and so funny,” said the 24-year-old. “She was like a little sister to me, I just can't believe it.”
Oakland Councilmember Noel Gallo showed up to the apartment complex Monday evening to meet with neighbors and family members. Gallo, who represents the area, was struggling to come to grips with the child slaying on Tuesday morning.
“All around us in East Oakland, we have shootings daily, people robbing, killing each other. I've seen many dead bodies but when it comes to this, a little girl being stabbed to death, it just really breaks your heart. It's hard to believe,” Gallo said Tuesday.