Pennsylvania mother stabs newborn son and tells police 'that's the devil's baby'

A Pennsylvania woman has been charged with stabbing her eight-day-old child because she thought it was "the Devil's baby", said police. Tanishia Fielder, 33, was arrested at her second-floor apartment in Swissvale, east of Pittsburgh, on Friday 8 September after the attack.

She carried out the assault because "God told her to do it," said police. The woman added that God told her to dismember the baby and throw him in the garbage because he is from "the devil," according to investigators.

Fielder admitted to the crime, adding that she used a kitchen knife, according to police. Police later recovered a knife under a bin behind the Melrose Street apartment building in Swissvale.

The baby was taken to UPMC Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh with stab wounds to the right eye. The child's condition has not been disclosed.

"'It was the devil's child.' That just kept coming out of her mouth," neighbour Darius Warren told local broadcaster CBS Pittsburgh. "I'm like, 'Wow, that's crazy.'"

Warren added: "I was devastated. I never seen anything like that before, especially from her. I never would have expected that."

The father of the infant told police that he and Fielder had fallen into an argument earlier on Friday, and he later saw her with the kitchen knife. He said she chased him with the knife, and in the melee saw the baby stabbed and bleeding.

Neighbour Warren called 911 for help when he saw the father run outside with the baby. "When the husband came out, I guess, he was holding the baby, running down, and the baby had blood in his eyes and stuff," Warren said. "The father was screaming '911, call 911,' so I called 911. Then when I asked the lady what was going on, she kept saying, 'It's Satan's child, it's Satan's child' and all that."

Fielder is being held in the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh on charges including aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.