Deerfield Beach RV Standoff: Father Told Son He'd ‘Get Eaten'

Documents released in incident where man stabbed family in murder-suicide

The man who stabbed his entire family during a deadly Deerfield Beach RV park standoff told his young son he had to kill him because he'd "get eaten" by a SWAT team, the boy told investigators.

"I was saying, please, no, please. Then he, he, he said sorry son, because I don't want you to get killed and get eaten. He was crying," the 7-year-old boy told a Broward Sheriff's Office detective hours after he survived the stabbing at the hands of his father, according to an interview released by the Broward State Attorney's Office.

The interview was part of several documents released Tuesday in the Feb. 9 incident at the Highland Woods RV Park.

According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, 41-year-old William De Jesus, from Port Orange, drove his red Ford Mustang into the RV park with wife Deanna De Jesus and the couple's two sons, ages seven and nine.

William De Jesus, who was an Oxycodone addict and who was found to have cocaine in his body, shot and killed 76-year-old Oliva Plante, then took Plante's girlfriend, Pierrette Beauchemin, hostage in the couple's RV, police said.

Beauchemin, who was able to escape the RV, told investigators Deanna De Jesus was a willing participant in the standoff, even holding a knife to Beauchemin's neck. She also said she was able to get away when William De Jesus began kissing his children goodbye, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

In the RV, William De Jesus stabbed his 9-year-old and 7-year-old sons several times before stabbing his wife and himself. After five hours, a SWAT team entered the RV and found William De Jesus and one son dead. The other son and Deanna De Jesus were critically wounded, but both survived.

Deanna De Jesus has been charged with aggravated manslaughter and child neglect in the incident, and has pleaded not guilty. Authorities say she didn't stop the stabbing of her children and "protested only when her husband stabbed her," according to a report.

In his interview with the BSO, the young survivor said his mom wanted to "go up to heaven."

"My mom was saying, we're rising...if we die right now, if she wanna die but go up to heaven," he said.

The boy told the detective his brother, who was autistic, was sleeping on a bed when their father stabbed him.
 
"He didn't want my, my brother to die too, but he just did it to him too," he said. "He didn't want us to get eaten...for a year. He just want, wanted us to go up to sky with the other angels and stuff."

The 7-year-old is in the custody of the Department of Children and Families.

The boys' half-sister wasn't in the RV but spoke with Deanna De Jesus after the murder-suicide, according to a separate document obtained by the Sun-Sentinel. She said her father asked Deanna De Jesus to choose which boy would die first.

He leaned over to ask her, he said which, which one, um… you want me to do first," she told detectives in a Feb. 16 interview. "I can't answer that," was Deanna De Jesus' reply,  according to the half-sister.

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