A fight between two in-laws turned violent, leaving one woman in critical condition in a Florida hospital and another in custody.
Celestine Ward, 57, allegedly admitted to police that she stabbed her daughter-in-law after an officer arrived at their Homestead home 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 asked who stabbed the victim, to which Ward replied, “I did because she was on me, I couldn’t get her off me.”
Ward has been charged with attempted murder and is being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center pending her first court appearance in the case.
Because the victim was in critical condition, an airlift was requested to transport her to the hospital, while a Homestead Police Department detective secured her children and discussed the incident with them.
According to the report, one of the children told the detective that her mother and father had fought earlier and that her father had then left the house.
That same child told the detective that her mother and grandmother began arguing, and she allegedly said, “Grandma started to kill mami with the knife, the knife is in the room under the bed.”
The children were then taken into the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
A detective then went to the hospital to interview the victim, who stated that the stabbing occurred following a day of drinking at Chili’s with her mother-in-law, according to the report.
After returning home, the two began arguing for reasons the victim could not recall, and Ward allegedly charged at her, she told the detective.
She managed to defend herself the first time, but the victim claims Ward charged again and began stabbing her repeatedly, according to the report.
Ward claimed in her police interview that the victim punched her in the face several times, but a detective stated in the report that the “subject did not have any visible injuries.”
Ward’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment and has already pleaded not guilty on his client’s behalf, according to court records obtained by PEOPLE.