Woman threatens to kill kids
Staff report
WARREN
Police arrived in time to take a 36-year-old woman into custody who had told her 13-year-old son she was going to drive him, another son and her two smaller children “into the river so everyone could die as a family.”
The 13-year-old told a 911 operator Thursday night that his mother had the youngest two children, age 1 and 5, in the car and was backing the car out of the driveway of their house on Forest Street Northeast.
Dawn Malek still was in the driveway, however, when a police officer arrived and took her into custody. Trumbull County Children Services made arrangements for the care of the children.
Malek pleaded innocent Friday in Warren Municipal Court to two counts of child endangering and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and was released after posting $2,500 bond. Her charges say her blood-alcohol level was at least .17 percent, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
The 13-year-old told police Malek put his baby brother and sister into the car, but he refused to get in.
Malek told the boy “he could just live there alone,” then said she was going to drive to Painesville to get her 16-year-old son and then drive everyone into the river.
The 13-year-old said he had called his grandmother, and she was on her way to their home to pick up the children at the time of the 9:45 p.m. call to police.