PLACENTIA (CNS) - Two young girls were stabbed to death today by their father, who then stabbed himself and was found dead across the street from the home in Placentia in a murder suicide, police said.
Officers went to the 400 block of Swanson Avenue at 12:38 a.m. regarding a call of “unknown trouble with two children stabbed,'' Placentia police Lt. Adam Gloe said in a statement.
“The suspect was reported to be the father of the children,'' Gloe said. “When officers arrived, they located a man lying on grass on a front yard on the 400 block of Swanson. The officers located two children bleeding inside a residence. Two other people were inside the residence at the time and were unharmed.''
Police did not release the names of the dead or their ages. According to reports from the scene, the girls were about 9 years of age. They were found in the living room of the home and their father's body was located on a sidewalk across the street from the home, police said.
“My heart goes out to the family,'' Placentia Police Sgt. Bryce Angel told reporters at the scene. “This is just a tragic situation for the this whole community.''
The children's mother and grandmother were asleep in the home when the attack occurred, according to Fox11.
“The children's mother was awakened to this violence, and tried to intervene,'' Angel told Fox11. “However, the male had already completed the act, and ran out of the house. And it looks he bled out, across the street.''
Angel said crisis counselors were made available to relatives of the victims.
“It is extremely tragic for the family,'' Angel said. “It's just one of those things that we hate to see happen. We're trying to get to the bottom of this, why it happened.''
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