‘Terrible thing’: Father urged son to turn himself in for fatal stabbing of 2-year-old

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On Tuesday, Lataz Gray called his father from a hospital, where he was being treated for a cut to his hand, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The father didn’t tell his son – the suspect in the fatal stabbing of a young child- to run, and he didn’t tell him to hide from police, reports indicate.

Instead, according to the Times, he told Gray to turn himself in – and then notified authorities.

Gray was arrested Tuesday and was being held without bail, Officer Ricardo Hernandez of the Los Angeles Police Department told The Washington Post on Wednesday. The Associated Press reported that Gray could face murder and attempted murder charges.

“We really do appreciate a father’s ability to recognize his duty in this case,” LAPD Capt. Peter Whittingham said at a news conference, according to the AP.

“I think it’s a terrible, terrible thing and I’m not feeling good about it at all,” Gray’s father, Philip, told KABC.

Lataz Gray stands accused in the stabbing death of a 2-year-old girl, which reportedly occurred in a Southern California home Monday night. The girl’s pregnant mother was also injured in the attack and was hospitalized in critical condition, KABC reported.

The crime, Whittingham said, was “one of the most vicious incidents that I have seen and been part of in my 28 years in this police department.”

The case will be presented to the district attorney within 48 hours of Gray’s arrest, Hernandez told The Post.

The AP reports that the woman’s unborn child wasn’t hurt during Monday’s confrontation and is expected to survive.

Lataz Gray isn’t the father of the toddler, according to the Times, but was living with the child’s 22-year-old mother, who was his girlfriend.

“She’s a beautiful person. That blew me out of the water for this to happen,” Philip Gray told KABC. “But like I said, I really don’t know what happened.”

Photo credit: ABC7
Photo credit: ABC7

(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Sarah Larimer

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