Man Kills Two Kids With Pitchfork

ByABC News
August 24, 2000, 6:25 AM

M E R C E D, Calif., Aug. 24 -- A stranger broke into a home and fatallystabbed a 9-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother with apitchfork 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 runningthrough fields to a neighbors house, where one called 911.

Theres somebody in my house who I dont know, 14-year-old Jessica Lynn Carpenter told the dispatcher. [Hes] stabbing my brother and sister with a pitchfork. You have to carefulhes 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 thepitchfork, authorities said.

He was pointing it at them and going right after them. He wouldnt stop, Assistant Sheriff Henry Strength said. They werehollering at him to stop, but he wouldnt stop. Finally they had to shoot him.

The mans 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.

Killed in Their Beds

Ashley Danielle Carpenter, 9, and John William Carpenter, 8, were killed in their beds at their home on Vassar Avenue on the outskirts of the city.

The childrens parents were not at home at the time, the Merced Sun-Star reported.

The girl who phoned 911 told authorities she had just woken up and when she left her bedroom she noticed that the man appeared tobe getting dressed. He had closed all the windows and pushed the furniture pushed up against the walls.

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