A man attacked his 8-year-old daughter and her mother with a knife in Woodbridge, Virginia, on Friday night, police say.
Officers arrived at the Dominion Ridge Apartments complex on Meandering Way about 9:30 p.m. to investigate a stabbing.
Officers found Javier Mauricio Molina, 25, of Woodbridge, carrying a child covered in blood down the stairs, Prince William County police say. The man put the girl on the ground and struck her several times, police said.
Neighbors said the noise woke them up. One said she was horrified by what she saw: the child bleeding on the ground.
"It was terrifying. I had never seen anything like that," she said.
An officer pulled Molina off his daughter, then the suspect began struggling with that officer, police said.
The suspect continued to fight officers as they tried to force him into two separate cruisers, police said. Eventually, they put him in a police van.
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Police rendered first aid on the scene to the girl, who suffered multiple stab wounds.
While treating the girl, police learned that the child's mother, a 25-year-old woman, was injured inside a residence. She was found in the kitchen, stabbed multiple times, police said.
Both the girl and the woman were flown to a hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries, police say. They were in critical condition.
Police said Molina was an acquaintance of the woman.
Molina is charged with two counts of aggravated malicious wounding. He is being held without bond pending a court date.
