Two children in Harris County, Texas, are accused in a stabbing incident that left a 59-year-old woman in critical condition on Saturday.
KHOU 11 reported that officials have charged a 12-year-old boy with aggravated assault, while a seven-year-old boy in the case “is not culpable by law,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez explained.
The incident occurred that afternoon on April Valley Court when officials say the boys returned to the woman’s house following a possible earlier confrontation.
The woman was seen in surveillance video standing in her driveway talking to the children who had their bicycles with them. According to KHOU, a neighbor apparently asked the children to leave the woman alone before the boys left.
However, they returned not long after that and were wearing surgical gloves. When they walked up the woman’s driveway, a child wearing a red hoodie appeared to approach the woman.
Seconds later, the two boys left the area on their bikes. Per KHOU, the woman’s brother arrived a few minutes later to check on her and found the woman had been injured.
In a social media post Sunday afternoon, Gonzalez gave an update on the incident. He said the woman was still in the hospital in critical condition and the older boy was in the custody of Harris County Juvenile:
Update to yesterday’s stabbing scene on April Valley Ct: the victim remains hospitalized in critical condition.
An Aggravated Assault charge was filed on the 12-yr-old, he’s in the custody of Harris County Juvenile.
7-yr-old is not culpable by law.
— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) March 24, 2024
In a subsequent post, Gonzalez noted that “CPS has also been notified. Investigation remains on-going.”
Neighbors told Click2Houston it was not the first time law enforcement had been called to the area, and deputies said the woman involved suffers from a mental illness.
Neighbor Maddy Monsalve said, “Lately it’s been getting worse. She was like, telling me that she was going to cut me if I didn’t back off.”
“I think these kids … they just didn’t know any better so they retaliated,” she added.
According to KHOU, Monsalve also said, “If [the kids] have the ability to go and do that to an older woman who clearly has mental issues, and even our neighbor tells them like, ‘hey, leave her alone, she has something,’ now it’s a concern.”