NEWBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — A suicidal mother who loaded her four children into a minivan and drove off a boat ramp into the frigid Hudson River changed her mind as the van sank and cried, "I made a mistake, I made a terrible mistake," said her 10-year-old son, who survived by crawling out a window and swimming ashore.
Lashanda Armstrong had warned in a cryptic Facebook
message just before the fatal plunge: "I'm so sorry everyone forgive me
please for what I'm gonna do.... This Is It!!!!"
Her 10-year-old son, the only survivor as his
mother and three siblings drowned, says she had told the children, "You're
all going to die with me," but then tried, too late, to back out of the
river, according to a woman who found the sopping wet boy.
Meave Ryan was driving past the boat ramp in
Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City, on Tuesday evening when she
spotted the boy, La'Shaun Armstrong, waving his arms.
Ryan said the boy told her that his mother had had
a "big, big argument about my stepdad's cheating on her," then piled
the four children in the minivan and sped into the river.
Ryan told The Associated Press on Thursday that
La'Shaun said Armstrong had held him and the other kids — boys ages 5 and 2 and
an 11-month-old girl — as the minivan began sinking.
"She was holding on to all of them and said,
'If I'm going to die, you're all going to die with me,'" Ryan said.
"She said that two or three times."
But as the vehicle sank, La'Shaun broke free of his
mother's grasp and clambered out a window.
Ryan said: "While he was doing that, he heard
his mother saying, 'I made a mistake, I made a terrible mistake.' And she tried
to reverse the car out, but at that time it was too late. He said, 'Mommy, I'm
going to go get help,' and she said, 'OK.' And that was the last he heard from
his mother."
Ryan drove the boy to a nearby fire station.
Rescuers immediately went to the river, but it was too late: They found the van
about 25 yards from shore in 8 feet of water. Lashanda Armstrong and three
children were dead.
Ryan's account conforms to reports from police, who
say Armstrong was involved in a domestic incident at her apartment Tuesday
evening and within minutes had plunged off a boat ramp into the river just a
half-mile from her apartment in a hard-luck section of the city.
The Facebook message, posted from Armstrong's
BlackBerry, was obtained by MidHudsonNews.com. It posted on her page at 7:13
p.m. Tuesday, about a half-hour before she drove into the river.
"I don't know if we'll ever find out what
Lashanda Armstrong was thinking when she left that home and drove to the
river," Newburgh police Chief Michael Ferrara said.
Lt. Bruce Campbell said police had heard from at
least two witnesses who said they saw a minivan speed through an intersection
at the boat launch's entrance fast enough that the vehicle appeared to bottom
out on the bumpy pavement.
"She went through it at a pretty good
pace," Campbell said.
The witnesses, motorists who had stopped at a stop
sign, "just thought it was kids driving fast or acting up," he said.
They apparently didn't see what happened next, he said.
Campbell said police believe Armstrong hit the
water going 15 to 20 mph. There was no substantial damage to the vehicle's
front end, and the airbags didn't deploy, he said.
A stream of people went to the boat ramp Thursday,
and friends and neighbors gathered to try to process the tragedy.
Ashonti George, 21, laid a red rose on the doorway
to Armstrong's apartment Thursday morning. The two women were in the same math
class at Orange County Community College. George, of Newburgh, said that
Armstrong usually was an attentive student but wasn't herself during a Tuesday
morning test.
"She was off," George said. "She
didn't seem like herself. She seemed angry — off. That's the best way I can
explain it."
People lit candles near the spot where the van
entered the water. Natasha Colon and Nicole Callahan, both mothers from
Newburgh, were among the mourners.
"I just wanted to say a prayer for them and
for the boy who's going to go through a lot," Colon said.
Callahan added: "They were innocent
babies."
Jay Vandervort, a Newburgh resident who said he was
a friend of Armstrong's, also stopped by the boat ramp. He said he last saw her
about a month ago.
"She just seemed happy-go-lucky, like
everything's good," he said.
A few dozen people gathered on the landing Thursday
evening next to the makeshift shrine to offer up prayers for the family and
toss handfuls of symbolically cleansing salt into the river.
Armstrong's aunt had called police at about 7:45
p.m. Tuesday to report a domestic incident at her niece's apartment. By the
time police got there, she was gone. Besides Armstrong, Landen Pierre, 5, Lance
Pierre, 2, and 11-month-old Laianna Pierre died.
Earlier that day, Armstrong appeared stressed when
she picked up the children at the Young and Unique Christian Development Child
Care, said Shaniesha Strange, supervisor in the infant room.
Police questioned the man they identified as the
father of the three dead children, Jean Pierre, but did not give details. He
apparently didn't live with the mother and children and could not immediately
be located for comment.
Police on Thursday confirmed that Pierre was
charged with child endangerment in February when a boy who died in the minivan
was found wandering the streets half-naked after 1 a.m. No further details were
released by police, and the status of the case was not immediately available.
Hetty Minatee, another teacher at the day care
center, said Armstrong had enrolled the four children there in September. At
first, Jean Pierre would come in with Armstrong and sometimes would pick up the
kids.
"A couple weeks ago, she came in a little
upset," Minatee said. "She said, 'Miss Minatee, I don't want the
father to pick the kids up or have any contact with them.' She said she was
trying to get a court order so he could never see the kids again."
La'Shaun is staying with the aunt, Angela Gilliam.
He's "doing fine," Gilliam said.
"She was a good mother. She was going through
some stuff," Gilliam said of her niece. "Nobody knows what my niece
went through."
She would not elaborate.
The boy told Ryan that Armstrong made a cellphone
call to her mother as she sped toward the water, asking for forgiveness.
Ryan said La'Shaun blames himself for never
teaching his siblings how to swim.
Ryan said she kissed him on the head before she
left and told him, "You're in my prayers."
Associated Press writers Mary Esch and Chris Carola
in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Mike Groll)
