Mother Arrested After 2 Children Are Stabbed

A West Covina woman was arrested late Monday after she allegedly stabbed her 7-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter with a kitchen knife, authorities said.

Officers were called to the Mardina Street home of Phyllis Patricia Shademan, 29, after her son escaped through a bathroom window after being stabbed at least 10 times. The boy went to the home of a neighbor, who called authorities, West Covina Police Lt. John Schimanski said.

Police found the girl crying under a bed with several wounds in her back.

“All (the officers) saw was blood, all over the house,” Schimanski said.

Shademan was sitting in the bathroom “in a disoriented state,” he said.

The woman’s husband, Manharra, a cab driver, was at work.

Both children were in critical but stable condition at Queen of the Valley Hospital, a nursing supervisor said.

Shademan was booked on suspicion of attempted murder, Schimanski said. A motive for the attacks was not known.

A bloodied kitchen knife believed used in the stabbings was recovered, the lieutenant said.