Palm Bay Woman Kills, Injures Kids By Stabbing

Mar 21, 2015 12:33 AM EDT

(Photo : Mugshots.com) Police described Jessica McCarty, who was arrested for stabbing her three children, as having two police records in 2013 and 2009.

Palm Bay police arrested on Friday evening a Florida woman who apparently stabbed her three young children in their Northwest Palm Bay home. She was still brandishing a butcher's knife used on her kids when she was taken into custody.

911 received a call at 5:57 p.m. from a home at 1100 block of Kenmore Street NW. The caller was the father of the infant. When police arrived, he was performing CPR on his infant son whom he brought outside the house.

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It appears that the two older children were sired by another man, and the police was contacting him.

Police spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez said that McCarty was in the front yard when the officers arrived. She did not show her hand and refused two or three times until she showed her hand holding the bloodied knife.

When McCarty refused the officers' request to put down the knife, they shot her with five or six beanbag rounds that were powerful to subdue but would not kill her.

Her six-year-old daughter did not survive the knife wounds. The two other children, a 5-month-old boy and another 8-year-old boy, are in an Orlando hospital in critical condition, reports Ocala.com. Martinez said the two boys have a pulse.

The suspect, 33-year-old Jessica McCarty, also sustained some injuries and was treated at an area hospital, but her injuries are not life-threatening, according to Florida Today.

Police Chief Mark Renkens disclosed that McCarty had string of offenses in the past.

In 2013, she was convicted of buying controlled substance through fraud and violating parole. In 2009, her DUI charge was reduced to reckless driving.

According to neighbors, the family just moved into the community six months ago. They described the two older children, who are studying at Discovery Elementary School, as appearing to be happy and healthy.

A 15-year-old resident who lives four houses away from the McCartys said it was a quiet neighborhood where the noise often heard are only dogs barking, until Friday night when tragedy hit the community.