A man slashed the throat of a mother inside her Philadelphia home Wednesday and her three children were home at the time. And Philadelphia Police believe the woman's boyfriend, the father of the children, could be responsible.
Philadelphia Police received a phone call about 7:30 a.m. from an individual stating that they believed one of their family members killed someone inside a home on the 4900 block of Warnock Street in Logan, said Philadelphia Police.
When officers arrived, no one answered the door. Firefighters then broke through an upstairs window where they discovered the body of a female with multiple stab wounds and her throat slashed in a front bedroom.
"She was a loving mom and a very hard worker... she tried several times to leave her attacker and she was just a victim of abuse, said a teary Linda Green, the victim's mother.
The woman's mother later identified the victim as Brittany Green, a housekeeper at a Center City hotel. After the killing, Green's boyfriend, identified by police as Gerrell Hall, left the couple's three children -- ages 6, 8 and 10 -- off at his mother's house then fled as the mother called police, said investigators.
None of the children were harmed.
"At the very least they did hear this horrible thing happen to their mother," said Philadelphia Police Homicide Capt. James Clark.
Clark told NBC10's Rosemary Connors that the couple had a "tumultuous" relationship and that it appeared they argued early Wednesday before Green's death.
"We believe he was inside, got into some type of argument with her, stabbed her multiple times and then took the children and fled from the house,” said Clark.
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Syreta Randall, a home health aide who works with the victim's neighbor, said that police were at the home several times in the past few months. Green's mother and police confirmed that there was a history of domestic incidents at the home.
Police called Hall a person of interest in the homicide. Linda Green made an impassioned plea to bring her daughter's alleged killer to justice.
"Please phone into the police with the whereabouts of her attacker, the children's father, who did this in front of my grandchildren," said Green. "Help me find my daughter's killer, please."
