Crazed knifeman stabbed his sister to death, then beheaded a second five-year-old sister as police looked on
Last updated at 4:33 PM on 30th March 2009
A crazed killer stabbed his 17-year-old sister to death before beheading a second sister - who had just celebrated her fifth birthday - as police looked on.
Officers responding to reports of a disturbance at a house of Boston, Massachusetts, discovered 23-year-old Kerby Revelus calmly decapitating his sister, Bianca, with a large kitchen knife.
Before they could draw their firearms, Revelus ran to another room and started attacking a third sister, nine-year-old Saraphina.
Killed and injured: Samantha Revelus was killed while her sister Sarafina, right, suffered multiple stab wounds
He was finally shot and killed by stunned police officers, who rushed the surviving girl to hospital.
The youngster is now being treated for multiple stab wounds.
The murders, on Saturday, took place the day after Bianca's birthday. Her cake was still sitting on the kitchen table as she was butchered in the same room.
Investigators believe Revelus targeted Samantha, a senior at Milton High School, and fatally stabbed her with a household knife while their grandmother, who neighbors say lives on the first floor, was doing laundry in the basement.
The children's parents were away at the time of the killings. The mother has been identified by friends as Regine Revelus, a nurse at a Boston hospital.
Sarafina dialed 911 and watched police shoot her brother as her elder sister, 17-year-old Samantha, lay dead on the floor.
Chief Richard G. Wells Jr. said: 'In policing, we see the raw human emotion every day, but to think that a human being could afflict such an atrocious, violent act on his own family is unbelievable.
'When I walked up to the first officer (on the scene), I could see the whole story right in his face. This just told me that this was something very bad.'
Boston police console the distraught mother of the family after son Kerby Revelus killed two of his sisters and attacked the third
The attack came about 24 hours after Revelus had gotten into a fistfight with a man living next door, Wells said.
'Blows were exchanged,' he said. 'I don't know the cause of it, but we're confident that did happen. He had been agitated in the hours that followed that, going into the day and last night.'
Sarafina, a student at the Tucker Elementary School, just behind the house, called 911 around 5pm. An officer on patrol in the neighborhood arrived within a minute, Wells said, and could hear an altercation inside as he reached the second floor.
The 911 operator tried to persuade Sarafina to open the door, but when she didn't the officer broke through.
'As the officer entered the door, Revelus decapitated Bianca in front of him,' Wells said.
'He actually walked into a killing field. He walked into such carnage, as far as the atrocity of it, I've never seen it.'
Within moments, four officers were inside and two of them shot Revelus as he tried to get to Sarafina, Wells said. Revelus fell, still clutching the knife.
Details about the number of shots and who killed Revelus are pending the outcome of an post mortem.
Revelus had recently served jail time on a gun charge, Wells said, but the details have not been released.
Neighbours said Revelus was in a car that was pulled over by police and from which one occupant threw a gun into a sewer.
Wells added police had been called to the family's house in 2004 after a domestic violence report that Revelus had punched a woman living there.
A neighbour, Norm Walsh, said his daughter reported hearing two shots as she went outside to bring in groceries from the family car.
Moments later, a blood-covered officer emerged carrying Sarafina, seeking towels to staunch her bleeding.
'It's shocking to me,' said Norm Walsh, whose son is the same age as Revelus. 'He played a lot of pickup hoop in the driveway.'
Walsh said the family members had lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years and were warm. They were of Haitian descent, as are many residents in the neighborhood, where Creole is spoken alongside English.
'The family is a solid family. Both parents worked; good kids. Completely makes no sense,' Walsh said.
Samantha's classmates referred to her by her nickname, Princess, and remarked at her grace, class and friendliness.
She had been one of about 20 students who had been at the high school Saturday afternoon to rehearse for a poetry jam on Thursday.
'She had a stage presence like you couldn't believe,' classmate Kassi Stein said.
Sobbing, she added: 'She had just a soft voice and everyone would lean in to hear what she was saying.'
A two-hour grief counseling session was held at the school Sunday afternoon and will be offered Monday to students and employees.
The officers involved in the case were placed on administrative leave and are receiving counseling from the Boston Police Department
Crazed knifeman stabbed his sister to death, then beheaded a second...
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