Marc Child San Francisco lawyer stabs to death his mother and her pet dog along with attacking father. Adopted son had previous order of protection placed by his parents.
A San Francisco lawyer allegedly killed his mother and her dog in the early hours of Thursday before authorities fatally shot the son as he charged at them with a knife, according to reports.
Marc Child, 37, allegedly killed 76-year-old woman, Barbara Child and the dog inside his parents’ home around 2:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the San Francisco Standard.
The attorney was shot after charging toward responding cops and his 84-year-old father near the front of the home. The son was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.
No known motive
Roland Child woke up early Thursday to find his troubled son walking around in the home, a police official reportedly said.
When he was told to go back to bed, Child allegedly attacked his parents.
Officers found the mother and dog dead when they entered the house.
The father was injured.
‘It’s upsetting for all of us, it’s upsetting for the community, the neighborhood, the officers, especially the officers that responded to the scene and had to deal with such a horrendous event,’ Officer Eve Laokwansathitaya said, according to KGO.
A neighbor told KTVU she received a call from a distraught Roland following the killing.
‘He sounded like he was in left field,’ Effie Bountouvas who had lived next door for over three decades said. ‘All he said was, ‘I lost my Barbara.”
Asked why the son attacked his parents, Bountouvas said she was at a loss.
‘I don’t know what happened to Marc, I really don’t,’ Bountouvas said. ‘I can’t realize it. Unless he was on some type of ‘dope.’ But it’s possible.’
Of note, Marc Child was the adopted son of his parents.
Child was a licensed attorney in California, according to the State Bar. On his social media profiles, he openly talked about his struggles with mental illness.
‘I was in biglaw and dealing with substance issues (no relation, of course),’ Child wrote in September 2022 on a now-deleted Twitter account. ‘I was [placed on a mental health detention] more than once and spent time in jail, in the middle of which I attended an unholy mess of a jail-adjacent residential program.’
‘I’m an immensely wiser person from the whole experience and I’m doing much better now (no thanks to the criminal justice system),’ he continued.
Lawyer had two restraining orders placed against him- one from parents and one from ex girlfriend
Court records indicate the 37-year-old was accused of assaulting loved ones at least two other times, the Standard reported.
His parents sought a restraining order against their son after he attacked them both in 2021, court records reportedly indicate. The son was also at the time living with his elderly parents.
In October 2019, Child’s then-girlfriend sought a restraining order against the attorney saying that he punched her in the head at her home in Orange County. She also said that Child showed up at her home shortly after the attack, banged on the door and refused to leave. He then called her 40 times from jail.
Police confirmed they had multiple encounters with the adopted son over the years due to drug-related incidents and altercations with law enforcement. Authorities stated that there was once a stay-away order involving the parents.
