PHOENIX — Phoenix police announced that 28-year-old Mulu Yeman-Merach has been arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder after the June 28 stabbing deaths of two children and an 18-year-old woman.
The stabbings happened at an apartment complex near 17th and Glendale avenues.
Relatives told 12 News at the time, the mother of 7-year-old Meadn and 9-year-old Arsema returned home to find her children and her sister Abraha Danait slaughtered at the hands of a 28-year-old cousin named Mulu Yeman-Merach, who lived with the family.
Police announced Wednesday Mulu Yeman-Merach was hospitalized from the date of the incident on June 28 until July 7. He was arrested by Phoenix police officers upon his release from the hospital.
Yeman-Merach was booked into the Maricopa County Jail and is charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
The family said Yeman-Merach had been drinking the night before and was under the influence.
The mother returned home after going to get breakfast and found her children and sister dead. She then ran to relatives to call the police.
“You might imagine these are those types of scenes that are very difficult for our first responders, firefighters anything that has to do this to come to a scene where there are three people, two of which are children," said Sgt. Tommy Thompson with Phoenix police.
Relatives tell us the family are refugees from East Africa and have lived in the U.S. for three years. He was in the hospital in critical condition.
