Family speaks out after 2 slashed in throat by father in Bronx

SOUNDVIEW (WABC) -- The pastor and the family of two children who were slashed on the throat by their father inside their Bronx home says they knew 44-year-old Christopher Stevenson had issues with drugs, but they never thought he would try to kill his own children.

"I literally fell to pieces, literally because I could not believe it," says the suspect's mother, Emma Brooks.

Most of the family was down the block at their church when the incident happened. One of the first to find out something was wrong was Stevenson's sister.

"It was just chaos," said the suspect's sister, Chante Joseph.

Stevenson's family believes he was on drugs when he slashed the throat of his 17-year-old stepson and 9-year-old biological son.

The older brother is being called a hero after surmising a plan to save his and his brother's life.

"He acted like he was dead, and when the father went into the other room, form what I heard, he was able to get up and run out," said the family's pastor, Roger Hambrick, "he didn't have a shirt or shoes on or anything."

By the time ambulances and police came to the home, Stevenson had fled. His sisters helped track their brother down to be arrested.

"I stayed on the phone with him the entire time while the detectives and I rode around, and my youngest sister, and we found him," says Joseph.

Stevenson claimed not to remember the attack.

"The police said his eyeballs, his eyes were black - he didn't even remember anything he did," says Pastor Hambrick.

The boys are expected to make a full recovery, but now the family is torn, trying to pick up the pieces and answer impossible questions the children have.

"You know, he loves his father to death, and he keeps saying 'I can't believe my father did this to me," says Brooks.

Stevenson now faces a charge of attempted murder.