A 40-year-old woman has allegedly killed two of her children after a fight with her husband.
The woman, Yui Inoue, told police she was “hearing voices telling her to kill her kids” hours before two young children were found dead in Tempe, Arizona, US.
She stopped an Arizona cop as he was heading out for patrol at 7am on Saturday, May 15. The mum, who seemed frantic, flagged him down and told him she’s hearing voices to kill her kids.
Officers immediately rushed to her apartment, based 11 miles outside of Phoenix, and found a girl, 9, and a boy, 7, dead.
Tempe Police Sergeant Steven Carbajal said there were “obvious signs of physical trauma”.
“It was very tragic what officers encountered, and we’re trying to support the father and our officers right now,” Carbajal said.
“Our officers are really struggling.”
Inoue was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Before the children were found dead, cops responded to a domestic call from the apartment at around 12.30am the same morning because the mum and dad were fighting, Carbajal added.
Officers separated the couple and checked on the children who were fine at the time. They then left the scene when tensions settled down.
Carbajal said: “It didn’t seem like there was an immediate threat to the children.
“Parents, couples, argue and they have disagreements, and they have issues that come up that often don’t require that type of intervention.”
The children’s dad wasn’t home at the time of the incident, and is not considered to be a suspect, the Arizona Republic reports.
The father “broke down” when police told him what happened to the kids, according to local media.