Report: Mother stabbed by man accused of setting Stonybrook apartment ablaze
CBS12 reporter Yaremi Farinas has the latest on the Stonybrook apartment fire. (WPEC)
A newly released report shed light on the circumstances surrounding the apartment fire that nearly claimed the lives of three children.
The report says Trenice Smith, the mother of the children, ran out of the apartment half naked after 22-year-old Velmando Williams, the father of her two sons, stabbed her in the back of the head with a knife during an argument.
Latoya Rentz remembers the moment Smith noticed her three small kids were trapped inside a burning apartment.
“When I looked at the window and they started getting black and stuff I'm like, 'Oh my God,'” Rentz said. “The girl Trenice was saying the kids were locked in."
Williams locked Smith out of the apartment as she called for help, police said.
“He don’t even know what he did to Trenice, what he did to her family,” Rentz said.
Below is the recording of a 911 call that captured the chaos at Stonybrook.
Documents state Williams used an accelerant to set fire to the living room, which is where the Good Samaritans found and rescued Smith's 3-year-old and 1-year-old sons.
Williams jumped out a kitchen window and took off in a nearby field, according to police.
When police arrested Williams, he denied starting the fire, claiming Smith’s relatives attacked him as he tried to leave the complex, arrest reports said.
Police told Williams his two boys were in the hospital, but Williams never questioned why or how they were doing, according to the arrest report.
Those close to Smith and her children said she’s staying strong.
“ We all hug her and tell her we love her and just be strong,” Rentz said.
Smith said her two boys are currently in the custody of the Department of Children and Families. Her baby girl is still recovering in the hospital.
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