(Memphis) A spokesman with Tennessee Department of Children Services said Thursday they are conducting interviews after 6-year-old that was not supposed to be in the custody of his mother was killed.
MPD has charged Jamina Nicole Briggs with two counts first-degree murder after they said she called police and reported she stabbed her two sons.
Her two sons, 23-month-old Jeremiah Briggs and 6-year-old Nicholas Briggs were taken to the hospital, but later pronounced dead.
DCS said they have had prior contact with the family, and said Jamina did not have custody of her two oldest children (6-year-old Nicholas since 2012 and her 9-year-old daughter since 2007).
DCS was not aware of the 1-year-old. The two older children were in the custody of a relative, although officials wouldn’t say why the kids were taken from the home.
Now DCS is investigating why Nicholas was with his mother.
Jamina has a criminal history in Shelby County, including two incidents where her mother said she punched her in the face and then another incident where Briggs mother was struck in the shoulder.
Court documents also show Briggs was accused of attempting to stab the father of one of her children.
“She asked me to take her to the dental office, I dropped her off at the dental officer over there at Thomas and Whitney,” said neighbor Lawrence Bonds about the family yesterday.
Bonds was with Briggs, who goes by CoCo, just yesterday.
But he said there was something unusual… her Nicholas was with her, and he didn’t live with Briggs.
After last night’s tragic deaths, DCS is investigating why Nicholas was with his mother and not with that family member.
Bond said Briggs once confided in him that her relationship with her mother wasn’t great.
“She said ‘You’re the only friend I got, even my mom will not help her out,'” Bond said.
That’s echoed in affidavits from Briggs’s previous arrests, for which she is accused of once punching her mother, and striking her in the shoulder during another incident.
Despite her arrest reports, neighbors say they never saw yesterday’s tragic events coming.
“They sat outside, the kids played, she carried them to the store,” Bond said.
One neighbor said he had a conversation with Briggs about her paranoia, and that Briggs recently indicated that she needed to be on more medication.