PIERCE, LANCE & LAININA ARMSTRONG - 5 and 2 yo, 11 Months (2011)/ Suspeect: Mother; Lashandra Armstrong (deceased-suicide) - NYC NY

A New York woman and her three children died after their minivan plunged
into the Hudson River in Newburgh, N.Y., Tuesday night after a domestic
dispute, authorities said.
Divers found the woman's body and her children -- a 5-year-old boy,
2-year-old boy and an 11-month-old girl -- in the submerged van 25 yards
offshore from a boat ramp in Newburgh, 60 miles north of New York City.
Another child, a 10-year-old boy was let out of the van before it plunged into the river, authorities said.
The boy alerted authorities at a nearby firehouse and told them what happened, the Associated Press reported.
"It's a horrible sight, all of them in the car," Newburgh Police Chief Michael Ferrara told the Times Herald-Record newspaper.
Ferrara told the Times Herald-Record that fatal incident might be connected to domestic dispute call earlier in the evening.
When police arrived at the home of dispute call, no one responded, the newspaper reported.
About 10 minutes later, the 10-year-old boy appeared at the fire station.
Authorities have not released the identities of the woman or her children.
A news conference is scheduled for later this morning.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/mother-drives-minivan-hudson-river-killing-kids/story?id=13362690

Update at 10:55 a.m. ET: The Associated Press
quotes a neighbor of the victims, Tina Claybourne, as describing the
mother as "a very good mom." "She took care of her kids," Claybourne
says. "She always was with her kids."
Update at 10:53 a.m. ET:
The victims were identified as Lashanda Armstrong, her two sons, Pierce
Armstrong, 5; Lance Pierre, 2; and a daughter, Lainina, 11 months. were
drowned along with their mother. Her 10-year-old son, Lashaun, escaped
through a window and swam to shore, police say.
Update at 10:41 a.m. ET:
Newburgh Mayor Nicholas Valentine tells reporters that the city hashad
to cope with homicides and the deaths of children in the past, but that
this tragedy "is second to none."
Update at 10: 20 a.m. ET:
A mother and her 3 children drowned after she drove their minivan into
the Hudson river Tuesday night, but her 10-year-old son escaped and ran
for help, Newburgh fire chief Michael Vattar says.He says the boy
had been a passenger in the car when it went off a boat ramp and was
"soaking wet" when he reached the nearby fire station looking for help.
Vatter says he was accompanied by an unidentified woman who picked him
up when he came out of the river.Vatter says firefighters and
search teams went immediately to the scene and eventually found the
vehicle in 8 feet of murky water about 25 feet offshore. "It was not
floating, it was under water," he tells reporters at a new conference
this morning.Newburgh police chief Michael Ferrara says about 10
minutes before the boy entered the fire station police had responded to a
call about a domestic disturbance between the mother and the father of
three of her children about six blocks from the river. Ferrara says a
relative had called police, but that officers found the second floor
apartment empty when they arrived. Ferrara gave the mother's name as
LaShanda Armstrong.
Update at 9:22 a.m. ET: The Hudson Valley Insider newspaper reports that City of Newburgh investigators have ruled the mother's death a suicide.
Update at 9:14 a.m. ET: New York City's WPIX reports that police had responded to a 911 call about a domestic disturbance at the victim's nearby home only 10 minutes before the incident, but found the house empty.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/04/mom-drives-minivan-into-hudson-river-drowning-herself-and-3-kids-/1

LaShanda Armstrong faced mounting struggles long before she herded
her four children into her car and barreled through the streets of
Newburgh into the fast-moving Hudson River. She had her first child at
15. Three more followed, and by the age of 25, Armstrong found herself
locked into life on a dodgy street in a dismal city, and in a troubled
relationship. On Tuesday night, Armstrong's seemingly
senseless drive left her and her three youngest children - ages 11
months to 5 years - dead in their minivan in 8 feet of water and her
oldest child, La'Shaun, 10, staggering from the river in search of help.
Soaking, shivering and barely able to speak, he reached a nearby fire
station and blurted out a story that has confounded Newburgh, a
hardscrabble city of 28,000 about 70 miles north of Manhattan. "We're talking about a tragedy in this city ... probably second to none," Newburgh Mayor Nicholas Valentine said.
It was 7:50 p.m. Tuesday when La'Shaun Armstrong arrived
at a fire station up the hill from where his family had just drowned. "He was obviously very shaken up, having a very difficult time
trying to explain what happened," Fire Chief Michael Vatter said. "He
was soaking wet ... probably suffering a little hypothermia at that
point." La'Shaun had apparently managed to lower the power
window next to his mother and clamber over her and out of the vehicle
before it sank into the frigid water and drifted some 25 yards from
shore, where investigators recovered it about an hour later. Everyone
inside was dead, in a case that revived memories of Susan Smith, the
South Carolina woman who in 1994 strapped her two sons into her car and
rolled it into a lake. Last month, a 1-year-old girl was
killed in a fire that gutted the house across the narrow, cobblestone
street from Armstrong's home. Candles and stuffed animals left in front
of that home were still visible Wednesday even as a new shrine formed
for the children and their mother. "Strange things happen,"
said Sam Simpson, a Newburgh native who spent the morning at the
dockside watching a growing mound of stuffed animals, flowers and
candles. Residents lamented the circumstances that permitted a
large vehicle to go unnoticed into the water at the relatively early
hour of about 7:45 p.m. A popular dockside bar and restaurant, Gully's,
was closed for renovations, leaving the area deserted. "If that place
were open, somebody would have dived right into the water," Simpson
said. The first call to police came about 7:43 p.m. from a
relative who had been on the phone with Armstrong and reported hearing
"tussling" in the background. But the house, located just
blocks from the police station, was empty when officers arrived. In less
than 10 minutes, Armstrong had put the children in the car and driven
less than a mile down a hill, past a school and a graveyard, over
railroad tracks and into the river. In addition to Armstrong, the dead
were Landen, 5; Lance, 2; and Lainaina, 11 months. "You don't
know what was on that lady's mind, what she went through," said Andrea
Burks, who lives up the street from Armstrong. She and other neighbors
said the slender and carefully coiffed Armstrong had moved to the area
about a year ago to be with Jean Pierre, the father of the three
youngest children. But the relationship was difficult, they said, and
Pierre did not live with Armstrong. Police said they had questioned Pierre but gave no details about his whereabouts. Neighbors said Armstrong took community college classes while holding down a job and caring for her family. Christine Santos, who said she knew the couple well, described
Armstrong as overwhelmed by having to raise four children alone, and fed
up with her predicament. "She was depressed," Santos said angrily as
locals gathered outside the two-story building, on a block of small row-houses, empty lots and churches. The Associated Press
reported that a supervisor at the day-care center where Armstrong's
children spent time had described her as under immense stress when she
arrived to pick them up Tuesday. "The only thing she'd say was that she
was so alone," Shaniesha Strange said. "She's a single parent. She takes
great care of her kids, goes to school and works. She really needed a
helping hand." At the Pathway to Salvation Mission of God
church, Carmen Davila said La'Shaun and his 5-year-old brother were
regulars and that each morning, Armstrong would leave for work or school
after dropping them off and usually not return until about 10 p.m. "Sometimes she'd be holding the baby on her hip, and one child in
each hand and trying to walk with her groceries ... and she'd drop the
diapers or something on the ground," Davila said. "She couldn't handle
everything at once." Armstrong had moved from New Jersey to
Newburgh, whose location in the bucolic Hudson River Valley belies its
grim reputation. Last year, hundreds of FBI agents swarmed Newburgh in
raids aimed at quelling gang activity that has sent the crime rate
soaring. Two years ago, federal agents arrested four Newburgh men who
were charged with plotting to blow up Jewish centers in New York City. "The older you get, the worse it seems to get," said Yvonne Smith, a
Newburgh native who lives near the Armstrong home. "I feel sorry for
Newburgh."


Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/04/13/1966940/mother-3-children-drown-after.html#ixzz1JSiJor4X

Police believe Lashandra Armstrong of Orange County, N.Y. killed
herself and three of her children by driving her minivan into the Hudson
River Tuesday night - one child managed to escape. Lashaun Armstrong, 10, swam back to the shore, where passerby Maeve Ryan found
him soaking wet and took him to firefighters, authorities said.
Ryan told CBS station WCBS she "will never forget [Lashaun's] face because the
fear in that little boy's eyes was just terrible." The lone survivor of
the tragedy told Ryan that before they went into the water, his mother
went into the back seat and held the kids and said, "If we're going to
die, we're going to die together."Fire officials said the boy
probably had less than two minutes to escape the 45-degree water after
rolling down the van's window. Officials suspect he may have been
suffering from some hypothermia when he was at the firehouse. "When
Lashaun came to the fire department, he was having difficulty speaking,
of course, and was just repeating about the car being in the water with
his mom and siblings," said Chief Michael Vatter of the Newburgh Fire
Department to the station.
Police announced Wednesday the
apparent murder-suicide took place after Armstrong was involved in a
domestic dispute. Armstrong had apparently found out that her husband
had been cheating on her and was distraught, reports the station.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20053895-504083.html

A woman who drove her minivan into the frigid waters of the Hudson River
killing herself and her three small children changed her mind at the
last minute, throwing the car into reverse and admitting her mistake to
her 10-year-old son who swam to safety.
Today the boy, Leshaun Armstrong, returned to dock from where his mother
drove into the water. He was accompanied by members of his family.
Minutes after an argument with her boyfriend and father of her three youngest children Tuesday night, Leshanda Armstrong
posted an erie message on Facebook, packed her four children into her
minivan, and headed for the Hudson River in Newburgh, N.Y.
Her Facebook message, posted at 7:13 p.m. Tuesday, said, "I'm so sorry
everyone forgive me please for what I'm gonna do.... This Is It!!!!"
During the ride to the river, her son says she told her children,
"You're all going to die with me."
Despite her decision to kill her family, evidence from the scene and
interviews with Lashaun indicate that she changed her mind once the
vehicle began filling with water.
"I made a mistake, I made a terrible mistake," Armstrong told her oldest
son, according to Maeve Ryan, a good Samaritan who found the
soaking-wet child and brought him to a nearby firehouse.
"She tried to reverse the car out, but at that time it was too late,"
Ryan told the Associated Press. "He said, 'Mommy, I'm going to go get
help,' and she said, 'OK.' And that was the last he heard from his
mother."
When police were able to pull the car out of the water Wednesday, they
noticed that the gearshift was in reverse, said Lt. Bruce Campbell, a
member of the dive team and department spokesman.
Leshaun Armstrong told Ryan that his mother was holding onto all four
children, including two boys aged 5 and 2 and 11-month-old daughter as
the car hit the water. As water rushed in through the windows and the
car sank in 8 feet of water 25 yards from shore, Leshaun broke free,
crawled out a window and swam to safety.
Police also said there were indications that they mother had unbuckled the children and may have been holding them together.
"We pulled the vehicle out and all of the water rushed out. The three
children and the mother were all located towards the back, which is what
you would expect pulling it out nose first," said Campbell.
None of the children had been buckled in, he said.
Armstrong's last moments were filled with terror, regret and tenderness.
The boy said that just before reaching the water, Armstrong made a final cell phone call to her own mother asking forgiveness.
And as he struggled to get out of the car, Leshaun said his mother kissed his head and gave him her blessing.
"You're in my prayers," she said, according to Ryan.
Leshaun, who is currently staying with relatives, told Ryan he felt
guilty that his young siblings had died because he never taught them to
swim.
Minutes before Armstrong left with her kids driving to boat ramp, her
aunt called Newburgh police to report the woman and her boyfriend, Jean
Pierre, had been having a fight. By the time police arrived at the home,
the women and her children were gone.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/mother-drowned-family-back-hudson-river/story?id=13377216&page=2