15-year-old arrested after stabbing sleeping mother, starting fire in Gulfport, police say
Authorities charged a Mississippi Coast teenager with attempted murder after she attacked her sleeping mother with a knife, then tried to start a fire in her home, Gulfport Police said.
The 15-year-old faces one count of attempted murder and one count of first-degree arson, Gulfport Police said in a news release Monday.
Police responded about 2:30 a.m. Friday to the 13000 block of Dee Avenue in reference to a “cutting incident,” authorities said.
They found a victim suffering stab wounds, police said.
The victim was the girl’s mother, police said Monday. Investigators found the victim had been sleeping and awoke to the 15-year-old stabbing her with a knife, police said.
Authorities rushed the victim to a hospital for treatment and quickly extinguished the fire, Gulfport Police Lt. Jason Ducre said. Police had no updates on the victim’s condition on Monday.
Under questioning, the teenage suspect said she planned to kill her mother because she thought she was “weird,” according to police.
Police also said the suspect accused her mother of “suppressing the black in her.”
Ducre said the teenager did not appear to have prior arrests in Gulfport.
The 15-year-old suspect was booked into the Harrison County jail on a $1,250,000 bond.
Police ask anyone with information regarding this incident to contact the Gulfport Police Department at 228-868-5959 or Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers at 877-787-5898.
