The parenting skills of a mother and her boyfriend are being called into question by some after the pair was arrested following a 911 call alleging that the children were being threatened with a knife.

According to a written report Syracuse Police were called to a home on Grace Street at approximately 9:52pm on Sunday, August 23, 2015 after a nine-year-old girl called 911 who, police say, "reported that her mother was trying to kill her and her five-year-old sister with a knife."

Syracuse Police say Officer Brett Leonard, Officer Brittany Shields, and Sgt. Dennis Flynn were told by the 911 dispatcher that the girl's mother, 33-year-old Phyllis Gary, had picked up the telephone and confirmed that she, indeed, was in possession of a knife.  Gary said, however, that "...she was only trying to scare her children like...in a horror movie and that her fiancee, (37-year-old) Ercell Morris was taping the incident on his cellular phone."

Officers say that the two little girls were "sitting in a bedroom crying and screaming in terror."  Police say Gary was allegedly menacing the children with a large, silver metal knife, at one point holding the knife to the back of the neck of the five-year-old child.

Morris allegedly told police that he was taping the incident for the purpose of putting the video on Facebook to show others the "joke" that they were playing on the children.

Police say that Child Protective Services was contacted.  Both the knife and cellular telephone were seized as evidence in the case.

Phyllis Gary is facing the following charges:

  • Endangering the Welfare of a Child (two counts)
  • Menacing in the Second Degree
  • Criminal Possession of a Weapon (fourth degree)

Ercell Morris was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Both are awaiting arraignment at the Onondaga County Justice Center.

 

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