A Queens family is grieving and a mother has been charged after law enforcement sources said she admitted to killing her 5-year-old daughter.
Franklin Cabello told NBC New York his family is destroyed after his granddaughter, Fabiana, was killed inside their house on 110th Street in Richmond Hill Wednesday night.
Police were still outside the home Thursday evening as detectives work to determine what exactly happened. Cabello said he was in his room, and then all of a sudden police were there.
“She was inside the bedroom, she closed the door, we [didn’t] see anything,” said Cabello.
Law enforcement sources said the young girl’s mother called 911around 7 p.m. Wednesday and confessed over the phone to killing her daughter. Fabiana was found unconscious, bleeding from her nose and mouth, according to police.
Surveillance video showed officers run out of the home with the girl and put her into a police car. An officer can be seen holding someone on the sidewalk of the quiet block.
Fabiana was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital.
Neighbors who live in the area were shocked to learn of what happened.
“She used to hug me so tight,” an emotional neighbor said.
Another neighbor told NBC New York he recently had started worrying about the mother, saying he hadn’t seen her leaving the house or taking the girl to the park or school.
The grieving grandfather said his mental health struggles forced her to be hospitalized for a month. She had been home for about two months.
Cabello said his daughter had been acting a little strange, and he thought she had stopped taking her medicine. He said his daughter told him a doctor had authorized her to stop taking it, but he didn’t believe her.
The father said the matter is now in the hands of police and the justice system to determine what happens next, as the family mourns a young girl taken too soon.
“She’s a very beautiful girl, you know. She’s joyful she keep my mom and dad happy. She give you a nice hug, you know. She was very happy happy girl,” the girl’s uncle said.
The mother, Francis Cabello, was charged Thursday night with murder. She had been undergoing undergoing a psychiatric evaluation earlier in the day.
The medical examiner’s office was looking into what caused Fabiana’s death.
