EAST ORANGE, N.J. (PIX11) -- A young mother and her two children -- one an infant, the other a toddler -- are fighting for their lives after being stabbed early on Thursday morning.
Police confirm that they're searching for the attacker following the crime at the family's home in an apartment on Park Avenue here, at 18th Street.
Police were still on the scene into the evening, gathering evidence from the second-floor apartment, which neighbors said was the scene of something awful.
"Unbelievable, disheartening," said a neighbor who gave only her first name, Siobahnie. "My heart is just wrenching. I can't believe it."
East Orange Police said that a single mom in her twenties was stabbed, along with her two children -- a three-year-old and a nine-month-old -- in an attack that took place in their apartment at around 1:20 a.m.
Another resident of the building that's at 105 Park Avenue said that he's known the woman since she was a toddler herself.
"I've lived in the building for 20 years," said the man, who declined to give his name, "and I don't know nothing like this [to] ever happen."
Even though police said that they were called to the scene in response to a 911 call about an attack, few people in the building heard about it until they woke up to police in their building.
"Weren't no screams in the middle of the night," the family friend said. Instead, he added, there were "screams this morning when everybody found out."
Even into Thursday afternoon, people who knew the family were out in front of the half-block-long building weeping as they learned about what had happened.
The family friend said that many of the neighbors had celebrated the three-year-old's birthday with the family the day before.
He said that they had a simple, important message for whoever did this.
"You just stabbed two babies and a little girl. Yeah, turn yourself in."
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