A Texas mother put ant poison in a spoon and tried to feed it to her 4-year-old son, according to Dallas police. When he refused to open his mouth, authorities said, she slapped his face and force-fed him.
Paw Eh, 31, was arrested and charged Saturday with attempted capital murder after she allegedly forced the child to eat ant poison - and then tried to get her 7-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter to do the same, according to an arrest warrant affidavit cited by the Dallas Morning News.
The 7-year-old boy said that Eh told her children that she planned to kill them and then kill herself, according to court records.
"My mom wants to kill us with poison powder that kills ants and stuff," the 7-year-old told police, according to the court records.
Police said Sunday that the 4-year-old was in stable condition at a nearby hospital. The two other children are with a family member, authorities said.
Eh called the 4-year-old boy into the kitchen Saturday afternoon, then put a teaspoon onto the counter and filled it with ant poison and water, the 12-year-old girl told police, according to court records cited by the Morning News.
Eh tried to feed it to the boy, but he clenched his lips, the 12-year-old said; Eh then slapped the 4-year-old's cheek, causing him to cry, and slipped it into his mouth, the girl said, according to court records.
When Eh tried to get the two other children to eat the poison, police said, the children ran to their grandmother's apartment in the same community to get help, according to CBS DFW.
Neighbors said Eh, who is from Myanmar, seemed to struggle with sleep issues and possible mental health problems.
"Some people say the mother is not 100 percent," a neighbor, Thang Awi, told CBS DFW.
Another neighbor, Sharl Nie, told the station that she would sometimes go with Eh to the doctor to help translate information from English to Eh's native Burmese language.
"All she talked about was she couldn't sleep at night," Nie said, "or she was thinking about suicide."
"She's been sick for a long time," Nie added. "I don't know about medicines, but she was taking some from the doctor."
Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner told the Dallas Morning News that Eh does not appear to have a prior history with the department.
Eh is being held in Dallas County Jail. Her bail has been set at $500,000.
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