A mother loaded her four children into a minivan and drove into the Hudson River minutes after police arrived at her apartment.
Police were called to reports of a domestic dispute at the woman’s home in Newburgh, around 60 miles north of New York City, on Tuesday evening.
But just moments before they arrived to deal with the situation the woman crammed her four children into the van and drove six blocks to a nearby boat ramp.
She sped into the cold river in an apparent suicide and murder, but police said her terrified ten-year-old son opened a window and climbed out of the vehicle in time.
The boy fled to a nearby fire station and told them that his mother had driven into the river with three of his siblings inside the car.