NORELL and ZYANA HARRIS - 1 and 2 yo - (Injured siblings, girl 5 and boy 8) / Suspect: Mother, Zakieya L. Avery - Germantown, MD

Two Children Murdered, Two Others Seriously Injured; Mother in Custody

Police found knife, blood outside home, 'horrifying' scene inside


Friday, Jan 17, 2014  |  Updated 11:46 PM EST


Shomari Stone

A young boy and girl were found dead, and their two siblings were found severely injured, inside a Germantown, Md., townhome Friday morning, police say.






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Mother of 2 Children...



Townhouse Tragedy:Norell
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A young boy and girl were found dead, and their two siblings were found severely injured, inside a Germantown, Md., townhome Friday morning, police say.

Police are questioning the children's 28-year-old mother, who tried to run from the home when officers responded to the scene, law enforcement officers told News4's Pat Collins.

They're also questioning another woman, 21, who was found in the home with superficial injuries. She is not believed to be a relative but is believed to have lived in the home.

None of the victims or the people being questioned has been identified, but detectives said the deceased children were a 1-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl and the injured children are a 5-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy.

Police said the deaths are being investigated as a double murder.

The scene in the townhome in the 1900 block of Cherry Bend Drive in Germantown -- which State's Attorney John McCarthy called "horrifying" in a press conference Friday afternoon -- was discovered after neighbors saw a commotion outside.

"...[O]ne of the neighbors here saw what they thought appeared to be blood near a car," said  Montgomery County police Capt. Jim Daly.

• WATCH: Police press conference on the murders
  

A neighbor called 911 saying he saw a blue car with its door open and the knife on the sidewalk outside the house. Police who responded to the scene about 9:30 a.m. saw a blue car with its door open. The keys were in the ignition and there was blood in the car.

Police also found a knife on the sidewalk outside. Police believe the red-handled knife may be one of the weapons used in the attack.

Officers had to force their way into the home and found the victims inside in a "very bloody" crime scene. The children were found in the bedrooms and may have been asleep at the time of the attack.

Witnesses described seeing the officers bring out the victims. "I did see a police officer holding a child ... it was a little kid," said one neighbor, who did not want to be identified.

The injured children were transported to Children's Hospital in northwest Washington, where they are being treated.

Police were called to the home Thursday night by a neighbor to check on the welfare of a child left unattended in the blue car, Pat Collins reported. By the time the police responded, the child had been taken inside. The case was reported to Child Protective Services.

Neighbors later said they heard loud noises coming from the townhouse, but they did not call police.

Police have not identified the victims, but neighbors said that at least one attended Germantown Elementary School. That school, and nearby Clemente Middle School, sent a note home to parents. That note did not confirm that the students attended the school but acknowledged the tragedy.

"The incident did not occur on our property and at no time was there any danger to our students or staff in the school," the note read.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Germantown-Two-Found-Dead-Two-Others-Injured-in-Md-Home.html

Police: Second woman charged after 2 children killed during attempted exorcism


By Faith Karimi and Joe Sutton, CNN
updated 12:47 PM EST, Sun January 19, 2014

Zakieya L. Avery was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Second woman charged after she was released from hospital
  
• Zakieya L. Avery, 28, is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths
  
• Police: A second woman not related to the family is also charged
  
• A day before the deaths, a neighbor called to report suspicious activity
  

(CNN) -- A second Maryland woman has been charged with murder in connection with the Friday stabbing deaths of two children during an exorcism attempt, authorities said.

Two children died of multiple stab wounds and two others are hospitalized with undisclosed injuries, police said.

Monifa Denise Sanford, 21, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder, Montgomery County Police said.

Earlier, authorities announced that the children's mother, Zakieya L. Avery, 28, also faces the same charges. Police said Saturday that Avery stabbed two of her children to death and wounded two others while attempting an exorcism.

Sanford was briefly hospitalized after the incident and was charged after she was released. Police believe she is not related to the family, but lived at the same residence in Germantown.

Norell Harris, 1, and his sister, Zyana Harris, 2, suffered fatal stab wounds while their siblings, who are 5 and 8, were hospitalized, authorities said.

"Cases like this are heartbreaking," county Police Chief Tom Manger said. "Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims."

Police said they found the four children Friday morning after a neighbor called 911 to report suspicious activity at the home. The neighbor reported seeing a car with a door open and a knife next to it.

Exorcism is a ritual aimed at defeating purported evil spirits or demons. Authorities did not provide details on why they suspected exorcism.

"Investigators have learned that the two defendants believed that they were performing an exorcism. The investigation into this motive and other aspects of the crime continue at this point," police said.

Police were called to the home Thursday over reports of an unattended child in a car. By the time they got there, the child was not in the car and no one came to the door, authorities said.

"Prior to officers arriving, two women exited the townhouse, retrieved the child and re-entered the home," Montgomery County Police said. "Officers attempted to speak with the residents, but received no response at the door. "

After the neighbor's call, authorities notified county child protective services and asked them to follow up. It's unclear whether they did.

Both women are being held without bail. Information on their attorneys was not immediately available.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/19/justice/maryland-exorcism-deaths/

Police: Mom charged in kids' death feared devil

2:52 PM, Jan 19, 2014

GERMANTOWN, Md. (AP) - A police captain says a Maryland woman accused of killing her two children has told investigators that she thought an exorcism was necessary to remove the presence of the devil.

Capt. Marcus Jones of the Montgomery County police department said Sunday that Zakieya Latrice Avery made the statements during interviews with police. Jones says another woman charged in the killings, Monifa Denise Sanford, has made similar statements.

Police have said the women believed they were performing an exorcism. Jones says police recovered two knives from the home after responding there Friday.

Two children, ages 1 and 2, were found dead and two others were injured.

The women face charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. Both were being held without bond.

Court records do not list attorneys.

http://www.9news.com/rss/article/373937/347/Police-Mom-charged-in-kids-death-feared-devil-

Maryland mother who 'killed her 2 kids in exorcism' headed 'Demon Assassins' group

By Daily Mail Reporters
PUBLISHED: 11:21 EST, 23 January 2014
UPDATED: 12:09 EST, 23 January 2014

The Maryland mother accused of stabbing to death two of her children during an attempted exorcism was the leader of a church group called the 'Demon Assassins,' it was revealed this week.

One-year-old Norell Harris and his two-year-old sister, Zyana, were found dead in their beds at their home in Germantown last Friday.

Their mother, Zakieya Avery, 28 and another woman Monifa Sanford, 21, who had been staying with the family, have been charged with their murder and the attempted murder of the victims' older brother and sister.

Prosecutors said that a day before the killings, Avery had been scheduled to perform an exorcism ritual on a friend named Troy, but he never showed up at her home.

Avery, a recently divorced mother of four plagued with financial problems, claimed to be a commander of the four-person 'Demon Assassins' cabal, with Sanford acting as her 'sergeant.'

The pair would later tell police that they had taken part in exorcisms in the past, but the spiritual cleansings never featured knives or bloodshed, the Washington Post reported.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy offered new details on the ritualistic killing Tuesday, saying that Avery and her accomplice became convinced that the children were possessed by demons.

According to investigators, Avery tried to snap the neck of her 1-year-old son, then choked him and finally stabbed him with Sanford's help.

Convinced that the demon jumped into Avery's 2-year-old daughter Zyana, the two women stabbed her to death as well before turning on their two siblings, ages 5 and 8, who suffered injuries in the attack.

When interviewed by police, the two suspects later described how they saw the children’s eyes darken and a black cloud hovering over one of the kids.

‘Both defendants alleged that the demon leapt from the body of the last child into Ms. Avery and then attacked Ms. Sanford,’ McCarthy said during Avery and Sanford's first court appearance Tuesday.

Avery then bathed the dead children and wrapped them in blankets so they would be clean when they saw God, according to police.

McCarthy added that Avery had been involuntarily committed to a mental institution in the past and that Sanford told officials she had tried to take her own life on two separate occasions.

A picture uploaded to Facebook shows Zakieya Avery with her four children. Police discovered the discovered the two younger siblings dead and their their five-year-old and eight-year-old siblings suffering from stab wounds

According to Montgomery County police captain Marcus Jones, Avery told detectives she 'thought the devil was in the kids.'

'That's sort of the thing she centered it around as to why she had to conduct an exorcism,' he said. 'She just thought that there were evil spirits within the kids.'

Avery was arrested when authorities say she tried to flee from a townhouse near the vehicle. Police found the two children dead inside the home, and their siblings and Sanford were taken to the hospital with injuries.

Police said Sanford was arrested Saturday after being released from the hospital.

The tragedy unfolded at around 9.30am Friday when police officers responded to a home in the 1900 block of Cherry Bend Drive, where they came upon a 'very bloody scene' involving six people, four of them children under the age of 10.

The two youngest children were pronounced dead at the scene.

The children's grandmother Ida Johnson, 90, told of her shock, describing the two young victims as the 'sweetest things'.
She said: 'I will cherish those memories forever,' she told MailOnline. 'Their lives were cut short and they had no say so whatsoever. It doesn't make sense.'

Mrs Johnson said the children's father, her grandson, Martin Luther Harris Jr. has traveled to the Children's National Medical Center in Washington D.C. to be with his surviving son and daughter who were both listed in stable condition Sunday.

Johnson said she didn't know if Avery had a history of violence or when the woman's relationship with Harris deteriorated.

'I don't know what was going on between the family, all I know is they were sweet kids,' she said.

The great-grandmother added: 'It's heartbreaking. Something should be done about who did it. But at the same time, it's not going to bring the children back. I just hope they get (what they deserve).'

Avery's stepgrandmother, Sylvia Wade, told The Washington Post that Avery was 'humble and meek' and said she loved her children.

'I don't know what triggered it,' she said. 'She wasn't herself. When a person is not of themselves, they are not responsible for what they are doing. They are in another zone.'

The other woman charged in the killings, Monifa Sanford, made similar statements about evil spirits during questioning, police said. The two women had been living together at the house in recent months.

Jones said the women are believed to have met each other at a church, which he identified as Exousia Ministries in Germantown.

According to Jones, while worshiping at the church, Avery was part of a dance troupe and started calling herself a demon assassin, but the moniker did not raise concerns because she never talked about violence.

‘She was basically saying that her job — as of lover of Christ — was that she was going to keep demons away from her,’ Jones said. ‘That was part of her and Ms. Sanford’s goal.’

Jones added that when Darryl Joyce, senior pastor at Exousia Ministries, was asked about Avery’s ‘Demon Assassins’ group, the clergyman described it as ‘a little bit eccentric, a little bit over the top.’

Joyce has since issued a statement to the station MyFox DC saying the women were no longer members of his congregation at the time of the killing.

Both women were being held without bond on charges of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.

During questioning, Jones noted that Avery acknowledged that what she did was bad, but allegedly did not sow the 'out-and-out remorse' one would expect to see in a parent accused of killing her child.

'Cases like this are heartbreaking' said Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger. 'Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims along with the 911 operators, police officers, evidence technicians, and fire and EMS personnel that responded,' according to the station WUSA9.

According to her Facebook page, Avery lives with her family in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and works as a pharmacy technician.  

Most recently, she wished happy New Year to her family on January 2. In mid-November, the 28-year-old indicated that she was in a new relationship.

- See more at: http://www.coloradonewsday.com/national/39068-maryland-mother-who-killed-her-2-kids-in-exorcism-headed-demon-assassins-group.html#sthash.0dq3ciRU.dpuf

This murdering bitch feared the devil?  She is the devil.