Shamaiya Deyonshana Hall, a 25-year-old Texas mother, is in custody and has been charged with three counts of capital murder after stabbing five of her children, and killing three, during a surprise CPS home visit.
It is reported that the incident occurred on Friday afternoon, March 3, at a home in Italy, Texas.
Child Protective Services was conducting a surprise visit at the home and it turned deadly.
Tiffani Butlerm who works with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, says the kids, who are all siblings, were in “temporary CPS care,” and CPS officials believed that the mom might have been having unsupervised visits with her kids, so they did an unannounced visit.
Butler says that CPS previously gave guardianship of the children, aged 6 and under, to another relative.
Upon conducting the surprise visit that Friday, the caseworker would end up calling 911 around 4 p.m.
When police arrived, they found three children dead, and two others injured.
According to the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office, a 6-year-old boy and 5-year-old twins (a boy and a girl) were found dead. The other two, a 4-year-old boy and a 13-month-old girl, were “seriously wounded” and rushed to local hospitals.
Ellis County Sheriff’s Deputy Jerry Cozby said that the suspect, the children’s mother, has since been detained and charged, and “there is no danger to the public at this time.”
“We are shocked by this incomprehensible tragedy and already working with law enforcement to investigate how this happened and why,” Butler said.
Hall has been charged with three counts of capital murder and is currently being held on $2 million bond on each charge.