9-year-old charged with attempted murder

Monday morning a mother stepped outside of her apartment to check the mail and collect some candy for her two children from a neighbor in the apartment complex, leaving her 9-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter inside playing together.

When she returned a few minutes later, she found her son stabbing her daughter repeatedly in the back with a kitchen knife saying, "Die! Die!"

The mother grabbed the knife away from her son and picked up her daughter.  The son ran, and the mother and daughter went to the bathroom where the mother called 911.

Emergency services responded and reports indicate that the girl remained conscious, but was airlifted to Shands Hospital in Gainesville for treatment of multiple stab wounds.

Police soon located the boy hiding in a maintenance shed on the property. He was taken into custody and interviewed with the consent of his mother.

According to the arrest report, officers asked why the boy tried to kill his sister to which he answered that the "thought had entered his head two days earlier," and despite his best efforts, he couldn't get the thought to leave.

The report indicated that the boy told them that once his mother had stepped outside to check the mail, he had gone to the kitchen to grab the knife and held it behind his back as he returned to his room where his sister was playing.  Evidently bent over to show him something, the boy is said to have grabbed her by the back of the neck before beginning to stab her.

According to the report, the boy felt that his sister needed to die because “he wanted to be able to go outside.”

The boy appeared in court Tuesday morning and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation as soon as possible.  The judge also ordered that the boy remain in secure detention.

His next scheduled court appearance is set for 9 am, February 5th.