Woman stabs three babies, two adults at ‘illegal’ Chinese nursery in New York then slashes wrist
The attack was in a house in Queens that was apparently being used as a nursery and ‘baby farm’, newspaper claims
A woman stabbed five people – including three newborn babies – and then slashed her own wrist inside a New York City home on Friday, police said. The building was allegedly being used as an illegal nursery and “baby farm”.
The 52-year-old suspect, identified to the New York Post by law enforcement officers as Yu Fen Wang, was in police custody. No immediate charges were filed, and police said the motive is under investigation.
Police were called to a three-floor building in Flushing, Queens, soon before 4am and discovered a three-day-old girl and a one-month-old girl who had been stabbed in the abdomen, as well as a 20-day-old girl with cuts to her ear, chin and lip.
The father of one of the children and a woman who worked there were also stabbed, police said. A butcher’s knife and meat cleaver were found at the scene.
The woman suspected of the attack was discovered bleeding and unconscious in the basement, police said.
After officers applied a tourniquet, she regained consciousness and was taken to the hospital, they added. All of those wounded in the attack are expected to survive.
Investigators are now trying to piece together what happened inside the building, a three-storey, multifamily town house. Among the questions was whether the place was operating as an unlicensed childcare facility.
The day care was illegal … The moms would then get citizenship because babies were born here
Nine babies were there during the attack, and the place had at least 11 cots, the district attorney’s office said.
Local elected officials said it appeared it was an unlicensed facility for new mothers and their babies to convalesce for a month, in keeping with Chinese tradition.
“This is every parent’s worst nightmare imaginable,” said New York state Assemblyman Ron Kim. He said it had apparently been operating for more than 10 years.
The New York Post quoted an unidentified “high-ranking source” as saying that the home was also serving as a “citizenship mill”.
“The day care was illegal. They used it as a place for Chinese women to keep babies they gave birth to,” the source is quoted as saying. “The moms would then get citizenship because babies were born here.”
State records indicate that Mei Xin Care was registered at the address, but there was no phone number listed for that company.
It is unclear whether it is licensed as a nursery through the New York Department of Health.
Flushing, a neighbourhood in the New York borough of Queens, has a large Asian population and is popular with Chinese immigrants.
Additional reporting by Reuters
