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American Morning

Father Allegedly Stabs His Three Sons

Aired July 02, 2001 - 09:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is less than two weeks after a Texas mother told police that she drowned her five children, and now, another tragedy involving the killing of children by a parent. Police in Syracuse, New York, say a father stabbed two of his children to death and left a third child in critical condition this morning.

CNN's Denise Dillon has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENISE DILLON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police say the first 911 calls came from neighbors who heard screams from the boys' mother. She had arrived home to find the doors locked and when she looked through a window, she saw one son motionless on the floor and his father covered in blood.

DAVID SACKETT, SERGEANT, SYRACUSE POLICE DEPARTMENT: A neighbor happened to hear the screams of the mother outside, phoned police and basically, this neighbor gave a blow-by-blow description right from the screams out in front until the police arrived.

DILLON: Officers forced their way through a back door. They found one child on the floor and his father, Cuong Tran, standing nearby.

JOHN FALGE, CHIEF, SYRACUSE POLICE: Mr. Tran went after the officer with a knife. The officer was forced to defend himself and the other officers on the scene. He fired one shot, striking Mr. Tran. Mr. Tran was at a later time pronounced dead.

DILLON: Police found 6-year-old Danny and his brother, 5-year- old Randy, in separate rooms. They were already dead. Their 7-year- old brother, Andy, was lying in another room with multiple stab wounds, but he was alive. He was taken to a hospital and underwent several hours of surgery.

As Andy fights for his life, neighbors ask why.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just unbelievable. Why would anyone even do that to kids? They've done nothing.

DILLON: The couple had lived together for eight years, but they were not married. Visibly shaken investigators are at a loss for a motive. FALGE: To see those children there -- laying there was just a horrific, horrific sight. I've never seen -- in 28 years, I have never seen anything like it.

DILLON: Of course the only person who can tell them exactly what happened and why he did it is Cuong Tran and he's dead.

Denise Dillon, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Since the stabbings, neighbors in Syracuse have been struggling to imagine why a father that they consider a family-caring kind of guy would kill his own children.

CNN's Jason Carroll is in Syracuse this morning.

Jason, what have you been able to find out?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far, Daryn, let me -- first, if I start out by showing you what's in front of this home. A lot of people have been coming by this morning periodically, dropping off teddy bears. There's a note here from the neighbors. You can look and see the bottom of it. It reads: All our love is from the heart, your neighbors on Kirkpatrick Street.

As we've been out here, we've also been going to the phones and we called the hospital. They told me that Andy, the 7-year-old, is still in critical condition.

Also this morning, had an opportunity to speak to Sergeant David Sackett with the Syracuse Police Department. He told me that the police are going to try to reinterview the mother today. She was just much too distraught over the weekend for them really to talk to her. She had to be hospitalized at one point for shock. But as you can imagine, Daryn, they really need to talk to her because what they're trying to find out at this point is they're trying to find out a motive for why this man committed such a horrible act against his children -- Daryn.

KAGAN: But, Jason, from everything I've read about this family and the neighborhood, this was a very involved family and their kids were playing at other people's houses and other people were sending their kids over, too. I mean this is not where you'd expect something like this to happen.

CARROLL: Daryn, it's really tough to understand. I spoke to a neighbor who lives right next door. He told me that his children would play with the children here, that the family was very nice, they -- no indication at all, at least from the outside, that anything was wrong on the inside.

But again, as we also spoke to another witness this morning, he said that when he was in front of the house after the incident had happened, some of the other relatives were there and saying that there were a lot of problems going on between the mother and the father. But again, no one had any indication that something like this would end up happening.

KAGAN: Jason Carroll in Syracuse. Jason, thank you.

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