KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 25-year-old man is charged in Jackson County after he allegedly stabbed two of his girlfriend’s children early Tuesday morning.
Gabriel Martinez faces charges of first-degree assault, first-degree assault of a special victim and two counts of armed criminal action.
Officers were called around 1 a.m. Tuesday to the 3800 block of Indiana on a disturbance.
Upon arrival, police made contact with a woman outside who said Martinez, her boyfriend, was inside with her three children — a male under the age of 5, a male under the age of 10 and a female under the age of 15.
The woman said Martinez was threatening to harm her and the children and had been violent with her in the past, per a probable cause statement of the incident.
As police were trying to make contact inside from the front door, the woman received a phone call. She said Martinez said he had messed up, per the probable cause.
Officers ultimately kicked down the locked front door after they heard a “child screaming inside the residence who sounded like they were in distress.”
The boy under 10 immediately ran outside while police went upstairs to check on the screaming girl.
When they were near the top of the stairs, Martinez walked out of a room with his hands up, the probable cause stated.
As he was being placed into handcuffs, officers noticed the girl lying on the floor of the room he had just exited.
After Martinez was in custody, the girlfriend ran inside to state the boy under 10 had been stabbed.
Martinez was then escorted while other officers used a shirt to apply pressure to the girl’s stab wounds until medical personnel arrived.
The third child, the boy under 5, was found unharmed in another room in the residence. Court documents state the youngest child is biologically Martinez’s.
Tuesday, KCPD said the boy under 10 was in stable condition and the girl was in critical condition.
“The quick response from the responding officers to render first aid until medical professionals arrived could very well be the only reason [the victim] was able to survive to the hospital and receive surgery,” the probable cause stated.
Police said a knife was found on Martinez after he was taken into custody.
During questioning, he said he remembered having an argument with his girlfriend. However, he did not recall much else as he said he was “drinking and did not remember everything that occurred.”
The girlfriend told police she went outside to de-escalate the situation but ended up getting locked out by Martinez. She also recalled him saying she’d regret calling the police.
The young boy who was stabbed said he remembered coming downstairs to find Martinez with a knife. He said he was then stabbed and attempted to flee while Martinez went upstairs and attacked the girl.
Martinez is in custody at the Jackson County Detention Center. He is being held on no bond due to concern expressed by the girlfriend of possible retaliation.
His first court appearance was Wednesday afternoon.
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