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A 10-year-old boy, knowing he had only seconds to live, made an incredible escape from his family’s sinking minivan — moments before it carried his disturbed mother and three young siblings to their doom at the bottom of the Hudson River.
The drama unfolded after a depressed Lashanda Armstrong, 25, decided to die and horrifically packed her four kids — Lashaun Armstrong, 10, Landen Pierre, 5, Lance Pierre, 2, and 11-month-old Lainaina Pierre — into the van.
She then deliberately drove down a boat ramp in upstate Newburgh and into the frigid river at about 8 p.m. Tuesday
When the van hit the river, she told her terrified kids, “You’re going to die with me,” WNBC/Channel 4 reported last night.
But as the van filled with water, Lashaun — showing an incredible will to live and remarkable resourcefulness — sprang into action.
First, he frantically began fiddling with the knobs and buttons on his door.
“He was looking for the doorknob but managed to push the button for the power window before the electricity went out,” said Fire Chief Michael Vatter. But the window that opened was on the driver’s side — forcing the tenacious child to climb over his murderous mother — whose last words to him reportedly were, “I made a mistake.”
He wriggled out the window just before the van went under.
Lashaun fought the current and managed to swim about 25 feet to the shore.
“He got up onto the boat ramp, turned around, and [the van] was gone,” Vatter said.
Cops said it took only two minutes for it to sink.
A passing motorist, Meave Ryan, spotted the drenched, trembling boy on the side of the road and drove him to a nearby fire station.
“He was very shaken up, soaking wet, probably suffering from a little hypothermia,” said Vatter. When the stunned firefighters began speaking to the boy, “he had difficulty getting it out,” Vatter said.
“He just kept repeating over and over, the car was in the water with his mom and siblings.”
Ryan, who witnessed the interview, told Channel 4 the little boy said that right before she put the kids in the van, his mother fought with his stepfather, Jean Pierre, 26, father of the kids who died. She accused him of infidelity.
As they sped toward the river, the boy said, his mom called her own mother from the van and told her, “I’m doing something crazy.”
Minutes later, they hit the water and she uttered her awful farewell to her family. As Lashaun swam away, he turned and saw her one last time — and heard her admit her “mistake.”
“The fear on his face, I’ll never forget,” Ryan said.
He told the firefighters that he learned how to swim over the summer and regrets not teaching his younger siblings.
Lashaun at one point turned to Ryan and asked her, “Why did I live?” she told CBS/Channel 2.
After an hour, cops and firefighters found the van and pulled it out of the river with the four bodies inside.
There were no skid marks to indicate the mom had any second thoughts about the horrible act she was about to commit.
She was likely going about 20 mph, although it could have been less, said police Lt. Bruce Campbell, adding, “There’s really not enough room to go fast.”
Police Chief Michael Ferrara said, “This is a very difficult tragedy for our department. It hasn’t been easy, especially because we have such young officers who have families.”
Friends struggling to understand Armstrong’s motives said she had been upset over her troubled relationship with Pierre. Cops questioned him yesterday.
About 10 minutes before Armstrong’s fateful drive, police went to her home just blocks from the scene.
They’d been called by Armstrong’s aunt Angela Edge-Gilliam, who said there was “tussling” in the home between Pierre and her niece. Edge-Gilliam also told cops that there was a history of domestic problems, police said.
Cops quickly arrived, but the apartment was empty.
“She was a good mother,” said Edge-Gilliam. “She was going through some stuff.”
As for the brave little boy, Edge-Gilliam said he was recovering, adding, “He had the strength to get out and go for help.”
Shaniesha Strange, 32, an employee at Young and Unique Christian Children’s Childcare Center, which all four kids had attended, was sympathetic toward the troubled mother, who was 15 when she had Lashaun.
“She didn’t have anybody,” Strange told The Post. “It’s sad for her to feel so alone.”
Strange said Armstrong worked at a garment factory while going to a local community college.
Recently, Armstrong told the day care’s management not to let Pierre pick up any of her children.
She said “she was going to get a court order against him,” said Desiree Watson, the owner.
Cops said they knew of no previous domestic violence in the home, but Armstrong had asked her landlord to change the locks on her apartment.
Last summer, Armstrong confronted a woman who claimed she had an affair with Pierre. That woman, who refused to give her name, told her the fling was over.
On the day she killed her kids, a preoccupied Armstrong showed up early at the day-care center.
“She just seemed like something was bothering her,” said Strange. “But she didn’t say what. She wouldn’t even look at me.”
Despite her odd behavior, no one could have predicted Armstrong would end her own life and the those of the children she seemed to adore.
“They were lovely kids. Her approach was always good. The kids were well dressed and well taken care of,” said a stunned Watson.
Lashaun was known for always helping his mother.
“He’d tell the other kids to put on their shoes, put on their shirts. He’s smart,” said Carmen Divila, who is affiliated with a church next door to the Armstrongs’ home.
