Man charged with stabbing two of his girlfriend’s children in their Kansas City home
The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office charged a Kansas City man with assault after he allegedly attacked his girlfriend’s kids, stabbing two of them early Tuesday.
Gabriel Martinez was charged with two counts of first-degree assault, one a class A felony and the other a class B felony, and two counts of armed criminal action.
Officers responded around 1:08 a.m. Tuesday to a home in the 3800 block of Indiana Avenue, where a woman said her boyfriend, Martinez, was inside with her children and had threatened to hurt them, according to a probable cause statement. The woman told police she ran from the home after Martinez allegedly threatened her because he had violent toward her before, the probable cause statement said.
While officers knocked at the door of the home and announced themselves as police, Martinez allegedly called his girlfriend and told her she “f*cked up,” the woman told police.
Police heard a child screaming inside the home and believed the kids were in danger, so they kicked open the door, according to the probable cause statement. One of the children was at the door and ran from the home, and police then heard a girl screaming from the upper level of the home.
As police went upstairs, they saw Martinez exit a room with his hands up, and officers handcuffed him. Officers escorted him from the home and saw a victim lying on the floor of a bedroom. Another person ran into the home saying one of the children had been stabbed.
Police found the victim, the woman’s daughter under the age of 15, with a fresh stab wound on her abdomen and blood on the floor near her, according to the probable cause statement. Officers used a shirt from the bedroom floor to apply pressure to the wound until emergency medical crews arrived.
The girl and her brother, who is under age 10 and had a laceration wound, were taken to Children’s Mercy. The boy was in stable condition, and the girl was listed in critical condition as of early Tuesday.
Before officers put Martinez in a patrol car, they frisked him and found a knife in his left pocket, according to the probable cause statement.
Police arrived at Children’s Mercy around 1:50 a.m. and spoke to a male victim, who said he was upstairs in his room when Martinez told him to go downstairs. Martinez allegedly had a knife in his hands and began to cut and stab at victim multiple times. The victim allegedly screamed and ran to the door to try to flee the home, the victim told police.
Martinez allegedly then went upstairs and stabbed the female victim, who was in critical condition and unable to talk with police at the hospital.
The boy was stabbed in the chest and the back, and the girl was stabbed in the stomach. The girl needed surgery because she had a Grade 3 liver laceration and a traumatic hernia. The boy needed three stitches on each of the wounds to his chest and back.
The children’s mother told police she and Martinez, who was allegedly intoxicated, were arguing when he threatened to hurt her and her children and kill them. The woman left the home to try to deescalate the situation and call police, but Martinez allegedly told her she’d regret calling authorities, according to the probable cause statement.
The woman also told police she feared retaliation from Martinez, who she alleged is affiliated with gangs in Kansas City, Kansas.
Martinez allegedly told detectives that he had argued with his girlfriend and trying to convince her to come back in the home when she left, according to the probable cause statement. He told police he went upstairs to check on his son, when he was arrested. When officers asked Martinez what occurred after the argument, he allegedly told them he had been drinking and didn’t recall all the details.
Martinez is being held in jail without bond. His first court appearance is on July 18.
