Two California children killed with pitchfork

Hmmmm…wonder if we’re going to have a Million Mom March against
pitchforks??????
BTW notice that the PHONE LINES were cut! So much for 911 !
************************************************************************

Two California children killed with pitchfork

August 24, 2000
Web posted at: 12:06 PM EDT (1606 GMT)

MERCED, California (AP) — A stranger broke
into a Merced, California, home and fatally
stabbed a 9-year-old girl and her 8-year-old
brother with a pitchfork before he was shot to death
by sheriff’s deputies.

Three other siblings, including one who was
bleeding from puncture wounds, escaped by
climbing through windows and running through
fields to a neighbor’s house, where one called
911.

“There’s somebody in my house who I don’t
know,” 14-year-old Jessica Lynn Carpenter told
the dispatcher. “(He’s) stabbing my brother
and sister with a pitchfork. You have to careful –
he’s going to kill them.”

When deputies arrived at the house in this
rural community about 60 miles north of Fresno, the
stranger charged at them with the pitchfork,
authorities said.

“He was pointing it at them and going right
after them. He wouldn’t stop,” Assistant Sheriff
Henry Strength said. “They were hollering at
him to stop, but he wouldn’t stop. Finally they had
to shoot him.”

The man’s identity was not immediately
known, but there appeared to be no connection between
him and the family, Strength said.

“He came from nowhere. Right now we have no
motive. We have no reason why this thing even
happened,” Strength said.

Ashley and John Carpenter were killed in
their beds. Anna Marie, 13, was hospitalized and in
satisfactory condition Thursday.

The children’s parents were not at home at
the time, the Merced Sun-Star reported.

Jessica told authorities she had just woken
up and was walking out of her bedroom when she
saw the man in the house. He had closed all
the windows and pushed the furniture against the
walls.

The girl told relatives she ran back to her
room, locked the door and tried to phone for help but
the line was dead. She escaped out her
window and ran barefoot through the fields until she
found a neighbor who was at home.

“It’s worse than any horror you could
imagine,” said Priscilla Hilton, 20, the victims’ cousin.