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| Lashanda Armstrong (right) drove her minivan into the Hudson, killing 2-year-old Lance (back), 5-year-old Landon (front center) and 11-month-old Lainaina (below). Lashaun (left), 10, survived. |
"If I'm going to die, you're going to die with me," Lashanda Armstrong told the children before the vehicle sank to the bottom of the river just before 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the only surviving child told authorities.
Armstrong's 10-year-old son, Lashaun, escaped the doomed family minivan - opening a power window and swimming to safety in the two minutes it took for the vehicle to sink.
But as he wriggled out of the window, his mother snatched his pants leg. "I made a mistake," she said before finally releasing the boy, the child told authorities.
After swimming to shore, the dripping-wet Lashaun made it to the road, where he was picked up by Meave Ryan, a good Samaritan who took the boy to a nearby firehouse.
"He was waving his hands, screaming 'Help me!'" said Ryan, 31. "He said, 'My mommy just drove the car into the water.'"
Shivering and barely able to speak, little Lashaun told firefighters how his mother had launched the van into the river with his siblings inside and how, just moments before, she dialed her dad for help, the kids screaming in the background.
"I'm sorry, I'm going to do something crazy," Armstrong said, according to the boy's story.
Police wouldn't confirm details of the domestic dispute that preceded the murder-suicide inside the tan van, but neighbors said Armstrong and longtime boyfriend Jean Pierre were frequent fighters in their second-floor home.
Armstrong, who battled with Pierre over his womanizing, had twice asked to get the apartment locks changed in a six-month period - most recently in March, the building landlord said.
Pierre - nicknamed "Prime" - was the father of the three dead children. He began dating Armstrong, 25, when they were in high schoo
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