A little girl is in critical condition after she was stabbed in the back and possibly her neck Tuesday, but authorities believe she will survive.
A source close to the investigation tells NBC 4 New York that the girl's mother, Ann Carimbocas of Long Island, is in custody and undergoing a psych evaluation.
The source said Carimbocas and her daughter were visiting the home of a friend Tuesday in Springfield Gardens.
When the mother attacked the girl at about 10:30 a.m., the son of the friend intervened and restrained the woman, according to the source. He was injured in the leg.
Neighbors watched as the girl, about 9 years old, was loaded onto an ambulance.
"They brought the child out on a stretcher, and the child was incoherent and very wobbly, you know," said a neighbor. "A little blood on the sheets."
Carimbocas was restrained in a straitjacket as she was wheeled out of the home. Witnesses described her behaving in a bizarre way, singing in the back of the patrol car even while her child was bleeding.
"She didn't look scared. She didn't look troubled. She looked like something went wrong mentally, because she was laid back and just screaming," said another neighbor. "From what they were saying, she was singing. So something mentally was disconnecting."
Police said they have recovered the knife from the home where the attack unfolded. Deciphering the motive for the mother-on-daughter attack may prove more difficult.
"What could have happened for you to snap like that to stab a child in the back?" questioned the neighbor.
Police are trying to get in touch with the girl's father to determine what may have happened in the days and hours leading up to the attack.
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