2 toddlers dead in South Shore murder-attempted suicide; woman jumped from 11th floor after throwing boy, police say

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Two young children are dead and two adults are in critical condition after an apparent murder-attempted suicide at a South Shore high-rise early Thursday morning, Chicago police said.

Chicago police responded to the 7200-block of South Shore Drive at about 1:48 a.m. and found a 20-year-old woman and a young child on the ground.

Security personnel then directed officers to an 11th floor apartment, where police discovered a 70-year-old man with serious stab wounds and a young boy unresponsive in a bathtub, police said.

Police and family members said the man woke up to the sound of a toddler screaming and found his granddaughter in the bathroom apparently in the process of killing her 2-year-old son.

The man told police that his granddaughter stabbed him, threw her 1-year-old son out the 11th floor window, and then jumped herself.

Police said the boy in the bathtub was found scalded, with cuts to his head and upper body.

The two children were pronounced dead at Comer Children's Hospital. Relatives said they were named Amir and John.

The man and woman were both transported to University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition.

Neighbors in the area said they are shocked that this happened.

"I'm flabbergasted. I don't understand," said Evelyn Sanders, neighbor.

"It was insanity to me," said neighbor Rahin. "I saw it, it was the first thing I saw when I woke up and it's right around the corner. I come out here with the dogs at 4 o'clock and I couldn't believe it."

"I could believe it, I couldn't believe it," Rahin added. "It's just sad. It's time for prayer out here."

Police are working to confirm the relationships of all four people and the incident is being investigated as an apparent murder-attempted suicide.

Crisis Responder Andrew Holmes has been in touch with the woman's grandmother, who spent several hours at the police station talking to investigators as they tried to make sense of the tragedy.

"I don't know how comfortable we can get her, but at the same time we're going to send a family support specialist to comfort her and counsel her through her ordeal, and we have to take her to the medical examiner's office tomorrow and that's even tougher," Holmes said.

"I'm just shocked because nothing happens over here," said Sanders. "It's a quiet building, everybody speaks to everybody."

Area Central detectives are investigating.