Officials in Lovington, New Mexico, have issued an arrest warrant for the mother an 11-year-old boy in connection to his stabbing death.
According to a release from the Lea County Sheriff’s Office, Bruce Johnson, Jr. was fatally stabbed in his home on July 10.
Around 1 a.m. on Sunday, officers responded to the home after Bruce Johnson, Sr. called 911 to report his wife and son had both been stabbed. The father told officers he was asleep when he heard his son screaming, per the release.
Upon entering his son’s room, he found Bruce, Jr. “lying on the bed suffering from stab wounds,” according to the Sheriff’s Office. When Bruce, Sr. called 911, he discovered his wife, 49-year-old Mary Johnson, had also been stabbed and was unconscious in another room within the house.
Both parties were transported to Covenant Hobbs Hospital to be treated. According to authorities, Bruce, Jr. told police — while still conscious in the hospital — that his mother had stabbed him. He later succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at 4:19 a.m.
His body was sent to the medical investigator’s office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for an autopsy, which revealed he’d suffered multiple stab wounds.
The Sheriff’s Office claims Mary had sustained “self-inflicted stab wounds to her chest.” She was later transferred to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, after being stabilized. As of July 11, she was said to be in critical condition.
Bruce, Sr. and his son had recently relocated to New Mexico from Oklahoma, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The father and son left Mary behind in their move after Bruce, Sr. learned that his wife was allegedly abusing their son.
He told officers he planned to file for divorce from Mary “due to the abuse and because she was often violent with him.” After asking to see her son, she later came to stay with the family shortly before the divorce paperwork was filed, according to the news release.
Bruce, Sr. explained Mary had not seen their son in approximately 40 days before that point.
Police in New Mexico said no reports of abuse were made during their time living in Hobbs, but there were two known reported cases that occurred while the family lived in Oklahoma.
The family previously resided in Kingston, Oklahoma, according to KXII. Regarding the cases in Oklahoma, the Marshall County Sheriff’s department told outlet that Mary “didn’t meet the criteria to be taken into custody involuntarily” when deputies went to visit the family.
For that to have happened, one would have to show signs of being a danger to themselves or others, Sheriff Donald Yow said.
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