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'I don't really feel like a hero. I feel like a mom': Women out to lunch spot Amber Alert suspect

Posted at 5:43 PM, May 15, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-15 21:05:51-04

TULSA -- Two women headed out to lunch in Downtown Tulsa called 911 on a car that ended up belonging to the Amber Alert suspect.

Anastasia Brazendeh and Emily Wilson said they were talking about the Amber Alert their entire car ride to lunch. The women were shocked by the details.

Police said Taheerah Ahmad bound and gagged her three children, stabbed her oldest daughter and set their house on fire. Then, the woman, who also goes by Kashmir Jackson, took off with her 8-year old daughter.

Pictures of the woman, her daughter, and the Lexus SUV she could be driving were circulated thousands of times on the Internet.

When Brazendeh and Wilson passed by a black SUV, it caught their eye.

"We were both looking at each other because we are both moms like, 'Why is that little girl sitting by herself?'" Brazendeh said.

She said the 8-year old was standing up out of the sunroof of the car and Ahmad was lying in the backseat.

The women said it was obvious they had been in the car for a long time.

"Let’s just call just to be safe. Let’s just call," Wilson said she told her friend. "I would rather be wrong and make some mother mad at me for calling 911 on her than to find out later we could have done something."

The women stuck around to see what happened when the police showed up. Turns out, it was the mother and daughter pair police had been scouring the city looking for.

According to detectives, Ahmad told them she and her daughter had been sitting in the parking lot since they left their home Monday night. That was about 17 hours.

"She admitted to being upset with the two older children because of the way they were reading their books, so she proceeded to bind their hands with duct tape," Cpl. Mark Kraft with the Child Crisis Unit at Tulsa Police said.

Ahmad told officers her 11-year old daughter got out of the binding and tried to attack her. That's when she stabbed her more than 50 times and hit her on the head with a pickax. She told officers it was out of self-defense.

"She attempted to set the house on fire to make sure the child was dead and didn’t live," Cpl. Kraft said Ahmad told detectives.

The two mothers had goosebumps when they were talking about the situation. They said it was hard for them to talk about.

"On Sunday was Mother’s Day," Brazendeh said. "I’m sure these little girls were wishing their mother 'Happy Mother’s Day.' For her to do such a thing was devastating and heartbreaking."

We have learned the 8-year old and 9-year old is safe. The 11-year old is in very critical condition.

Cpl. Kraft called this one of the worst cases he has seen.

"To have a parent stab an 11-year old little girl over and over and over again to the point where we don’t know if this girl is going to live or not... it’s heinous," Cpl. Kraft said.

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