Florida Woman Repeatedly Stabbed Daughter-in-Law In Front of Her Grandchildren: Police

One woman is in critical condition at a Florida hospital and another is in custody after a fight between two in-laws turned violent.

Celestine Ward, 57, allegedly admitted to police that she stabbed her daughter-in-law after an officer arrived at their home in Homestead to find “the victim sitting in a pool of blood on the living room floor leaning against a cot bed,” according to a copy of the arrest report obtained by PEOPLE.

The responding officer said he asked who stabbed the victim and Ward responded: “I did because she was on me, I couldn’t get her off me.”

Ward is now charged with attempted murder and is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center pending her first court appearance in the case.

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Because the victim was in critical condition, an airlift was requested to transport her to the hospital while a detective with the Homestead Police Department secured her children and then spoke with them about the incident.

One of the children allegedly told the detective that her mother and father had been fighting earlier, and her father then left the residence, according to the report.

That same child told the detective that her mother and grandmother then began to argue, and then according to the report she allegedly said: “Grandma started to kill mami with the knife, the knife is in the room under the bed.”

The children were then placed in the custody of the Florida Dept. of Children and Families.

A detective then went to the hospital to interview the victim, who said that the stabbing happened after a day of drinking at Chili’s with her mother-in-law, according to the report.

The two began arguing for reasons the victim could not recall after returning to the house, and then at some point Ward allegedly charged at the victim, she told the detective.

She managed to defend herself the first time, but the victim alleges that Ward charged a second time and started stabbing her repeatedly, according to the report.

Ward said in her interview with police that the victim punched her in the face several times, but a detective wrote in the report that the “subject did not have any visible injuries.”

An attorney for Ward did not respond to a request for comment and has already entered a not guilty plea on his client’s behalf, according to court records obtained by PEOPLE.