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West Valley City • A neighbor of a West Valley City mother who police allege stabbed two of her children Saturday morning said she has never known the woman to get angry.
"I've never seen anything other than her being a loving and caring mother," Sharon Jensen said. "I'm just totally shocked."
Police allege the mother, Mary Galvis, stabbed her 12-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son multiple times until their father was able to stop the attack.
Witnesses say Galvis stabbed the children several times with a knife, according to a jail document. A third child had reportedly been injured as well while trying to take the knife away from the mother, and was treated on scene, the document adds.
Two of the children were taken to a hospital in serious condition and were later stabilized, said Roxeanne Vainuku, public information officer for the West Valley City Police Department. A teenage girl who also was home was not injured.
Galvis, 47, has been booked into the Salt Lake Couny jail on three counts of aggravated assault.
The call about the stabbing near 3400 South and 2600 West was received by dispatchers at 6:15 a.m. as a report on a "mental subject."
Jensen said the Galvises appear to be a typical, loving family. And a teenager in the neighborhood who knows the Galvis children said he had never seen the parents angry or fighting.
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC