2 children dead, 3 injured at Md. home

GERMANTOWN, Md. (AP) - Montgomery County police said Friday that the two children found dead in a Germantown home and two others found injured are siblings, and that their 28-year-old mother was one of two adults found in the home.

Officers said a second woman, age, 21, who was found in the home is not a relative but is believed to have lived in the home.

Police said officers went to the home Friday morning when a neighbor called 911 after noticing a car with the door open and a knife lying outside of the vehicle.

Officers who entered the townhouse found two women and four children. Two of the children were pronounced dead at the scene. The other two children, along with the one of the women, were taken to local hospitals

Police say one of the women ran out a back door but was taken into custody.

Police spokesman Capt. Jim Daly could not say how the children were killed and the others injured. He said it was “too early to tell the exact nature of the injuries.”

State’s Attorney John McCarthy, who was at the scene, said, “There are far more questions than answers.”

Police said officers had been sent to the same home Thursday night after a neighbor saw an unattended child in a car. Officers say before police arrived, two women came out of the house, got the child and went back inside.

Officers said they received no answer when they knocked at the door and county Child Protective Services was notified.

Daly said neighbors described a “commotion” coming from the home on two occasions in the overnight hours, but no one called police.

Daly said, “We have no indication that this is a stranger-based crime or there’s a danger to the neighborhood at this point.”

Daly said the two dead children were found upstairs in the home, but he didn’t know where.

“We have a very bloody scene,” he said.

The community of townhomes is about 30 miles northwest of Washington.

A neighbor, Elisa Aloras, said she was walking her dog around 7:15 a.m. Friday when she saw a small kitchen knife on the ground close to a dark blue or green car. Later, she was driving by and saw the same car with its rear passenger door open. She said she saw a blue coat on the ground.

“I’m so sad,” she said.