A mother was arrested Tuesday morning after her 3-year-old son was found stabbed in the torso one night earlier, officials said.
Deputies found the boy at a residence in the 3800 block of Walnut Street in Cudahy about 8:40 p.m. Monday, according to the LA County Sheriff's Department.
The boy had been stabbed in the upper torso area, and he was taken to a hospital, officials said. He reamined in "extremely critical condition" as of Tuesday evening.
The boy's mother, 23-year-old Michelle Betancourt, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with the stabbing, LASD Lt. Holly Francisco told NBC4. She was booked at East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station and is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
Neighbors said they heard screams and yelling, the mother running around while holding the boy as her boyfriend, the child's father, screamed for someone to call 911.
"All of a sudden we just heard screaming and crying, and everybody was going crazy," neighbor Circe Marcel said. "The family, they came out. A mom, she was carrying her son, a 3-year-old, and she was crying. And the dad was on the phone calling the ambulance ... He was jumping up and down, terrified."
Another neighbor said the mother was screaming, "My baby's dying, my baby's dying," and "Please help me."
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The toddler's sister, about 9 years old, mother and mother's boyfriend were at the home when the stabbing happened, detectives said.
Deputies said the mom's boyfriend is the father of the 3-year-old boy, but it was not clear whether he is the father of the 9-year-old girl.
"He's a good little kid," neighbor Cynthia Griego said. "I'm just shocked anything like this could have happened to him."
Griego described the father telling her how they tried to talk to the boy, but his eyes were rolling to the back of his head.
"He started throwing up blood," Griego said.
An LASD statement issued Tuesday morning called the incident a "stabbing death," but Deputy Kelvin Moody and Sgt. Ronald Ridley told NBC4 the child was in the hospital and was not expected to survive. Moody then told NBC4 the boy died, but the LASD then sent out corrected statements saying the boy's condition was critical.
Anyone with information should call the LASD's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500.
Report information anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477), or texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or by using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org.
