The Devil Made Me Do It

Newsday.com
November 14, 2006

A mother has told police she killed her 9-year-old son in their Brooklyn home after being overtaken by 'demons,' police said Tuesday. After allegedly smothering the boy on Monday afternoon, the woman apparently tried to kill herself by throwing herself in front a subway train, but survived. Police withheld her name.

The mother told investigators that the trouble began when a birthday celebration for her son didn't turn out as he expected, police said. Apparently the boy expected food and friends at the party, but there was no food and friends didn't show up.

She said as her son became upset, 'demons overtook her' and she 'smothered the boy with a pillow,' Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a new conference.

At about 4:30 p.m., after calling the boy's father and telling him he needed to go home, the woman jumped in front of the subway train in a Coney Island station, police said. She was hospitalized with a broken leg and severed fingers.

The father discovered the child's body about 30 minutes later inside their third-floor apartment in the Crown Heights section, police said.