Phoenix, AZ (KPHO) — A Phoenix woman with a history of child abuse was arrested Monday after police said she tried to kill her two children by stabbing them.
Brenda Begay, 38, called 911 and said her two children were dying, according to a court document.
Police said her 12-year-old daughter told them she was sleeping in the same bed with her mother when she woke up to her mother stabbing her. The girl suffered a single stab wound to her chest, according to the document.
The girl said her mother then went to her 13-year-old son’s room and began stabbing him.
The girl said she walked into the brother’s room to find him on the floor bleeding and her mother standing over him holding a knife, according to the document.
Police said the boy had several stab wounds and a cut on a wrist.
Both children were hospitalized, police said.
The girl told police her mother went to the kitchen and put the knife in the kitchen sink.
She said her mother also told her she was going to heaven.
Begay admitted to police she wanted her kids to die and that she was only protecting them from being raped, though court documents don’t specify by who. The family lives in the area of 13th Avenue and Ironwood Drive.
Begay served six months in jail and was sentenced to 15 years of probation after pleading no contest to child abuse in 2006.
She was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on two counts of felony child abuse.
