Bronx Mother Indicted After Allegedly Slashing Her Children’s Throats From ‘Ear to Ear’

A Bronx mother has been indicted in the April stabbings of her 2-year-old son and her 6-year-old son.
Bronx Mother Indicted After Allegedly Slashing Her Children’s Throats From ‘Ear to Ear’
(Shutterstock/SeaRick1)
Isabel van Brugen
7/23/2019
Updated:
9/2/2019

A Bronx mother has been indicted in the April stabbings of her 2-year-old son and her 6-year-old son, who passed away just months after the 24-year-old allegedly slashed his throat with a razor.

Shanice Martin allegedly stabbed her two children on April 27, in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx, New York. Martin used a razor to slash the children’s throats from “ear to ear,” ABC13 reported.

Covered in blood, she then walked into the 42nd Precinct and told officers she had committed a crime, and asked them to arrest her.

The children were taken to a hospital, treated for around two weeks, and released, according to officials.

Martin was charged with two counts of attempted murder in the second degree, four counts of first-degree assault, six counts of second-degree assault, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, and weapon possession, reported Pix11.

Although reports at the time said the children were expected to survive, Martin’s 6-year-old son died on June 14 after collapsing in his Bronx, New York, school—Port Morris school—seven weeks after the slashing incident.

The child was standing in the lunch line when he collapsed. He was rushed to the Lincoln hospital and declared dead, PIX11 reported.

An investigation into the young boy’s death is still underway, and it is unclear whether he died from the attack by his mother.

Before she attacked her children, Martin had reportedly been living with them in shelters, and phoned her mother upset when she found out she didn’t get into one, reported ABC 7.
Her son and daughter were found wounded in the street an hour later. Martin left her children on the sidewalk alone “profusely bleeding” from their slash wounds, according to court records, the NY Post reported.
Speaking to the NY Daily News, Martin’s brother, Travone, 20, said she was estranged from the family and that she had a history of taking medicine for a serious psychiatric condition.

“She used to take medicine in the past. She never used to act like that. She was probably under a lot of pressure.

“She wouldn’t tell us anything about her life,” Lango, 20, said. “She doesn’t tell us anything so we wouldn’t know. She never called us for help.”

“She was a good mom, but I guess she was going through something,” said Lango. “That’s not something that you do to your kids. I don’t care what’s going on with you, you can ask for help. She just took it upon herself to do what she wanted to do and it’s not good.”

Martin had also lost custody of her 6-year-old son for two years, between 2014 and 2016, as he almost died due to neglect, law enforcement sources told the New York Post.

At the time of the boy’s death, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza told ABC 7, “I’m heartbroken by this tragic loss of a student, and my thoughts are with the family and school community.”

He added that guidance counselors were to be made available to support students for as long as is needed, and that Port Morris school was liaising with city agencies as they worked to investigate the circumstances surrounding the child’s death.

The Epoch Times reporter Venus Upadhayaya contributed to this report.