Prosecutors say a Pennsylvania mother shot her two sons in the head Monday morning before trying to shoot her neighbor and ultimately attempting suicide. Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub indicated that the children are not expected to survive.
In a press release, the Buck’s County District Attorney’s Office said Upper Makefield Township Police were dispatched to the 100 block of Timber Ridge Road in Newtown at approximately 7:05 a.m. for a report of an armed individual.
Police learned that Trinh Nguyen, 38, had approached her 22-year-old neighbor Gianni Melchiondo, who lives in the same duplex, as he was packing his vehicle for work and asked him to give a box of photographs to her ex-husband, with whom Melchiondo works, a criminal complaint states.
The victim turned to find Nguyen with a black revolver pointed at his head, the release stated. She pulled the trigger twice, but the gun failed to discharge, prompting him to engage her, prosecutors said. He wrestled the weapon away, and she fled in a white Toyota Sienna Minivan, per the release.
While at the scene, law enforcement learned that two boys, aged nine and thirteen, lived in the home with Nguyen, so an officer and neighbor went into the residence to check on them, prosecutors said.
“Upon entry, both boys were found with gunshot wounds to their heads,” the release said. “Both boys were transported by police and EMS personnel to Saint Mary Medical Center. At a Monday press conference streamed by WPVI, Weintraub said that the boys were discovered in their beds.
He suggested the children will not survive, noting “they will give the gift of life to others as their organs will be transplanted.”
A search for Nguyen ensued, and she was located at the United Methodist Church in Washington Crossing, where authorities took her into custody at approximately 11:30 a.m. Monday, according to the release.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:
They rushed her to St. Mary Medical Center because she had ingested narcotics in a failed attempt to kill herself, according to Weintraub. At the time of her arrest, Nguyen had additional ammunition for the gun, which she legally purchased, with her in the van, authorities said.
Authorities initially charged Nguyen with three counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of an instrument of crime. Weintraub said once the children pass and their organs are transplanted, his office “will upgrade these charges to two counts of homicide.”
The Inquirer noted:
Court records indicate that Nguyen had been locked in a dispute with her landlord, Corinna Tini-Melchiondo, for several months over more than $11,000 in unpaid rent. A magisterial judge had ruled in Tini-Melchiondo’s favor and ordered Nguyen and her family to leave the home on Timber Ridge Road by Tuesday, the records show. Tini-Melchiondo hung up on a reporter when reached Monday afternoon.
Tini-Melchiondo’s brother, Ed Tini, is Nguyen’s ex-husband, and law-enforcement sources said he is the father of the nine-year-old, the outlet noted. Civil court records show she filed for divorce in 2015, according to the Inquirer.