Woman faces charges after allegedly threatening children with knife

AMBRIDGE, Pa. — A woman is facing charges after authorities say she threatened at least five children who were playing in their Beaver County neighborhood with a knife.

Surveillance cameras at a home on Henrici Street in Ambridge captured the incident earlier this week. Police said Vera Smith can be seen holding a knife in her right hand, flailing it around and yelling at the children, who were as young as 8 years old.%

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Two of the children are Dorothy O’Neil's granddaughters.

“The kids came running back to the backyard and said a lady had a knife and was threatening them,” she said.

Authorities said Smith was walking down the street and talking to the children for a while when one of the children put his arm around Smith as if he knew her. Police said the gesture looked friendly enough, but Smith became upset.

“The kids were just horsing around, playing around. She got upset and start threatening their lives no adult should do that,” Ambridge Police Chief Jim Mann said.

Ambridge police told Channel 11 News that they took a knife into evidence, and said Smith admitted to everything, telling officers that she lost her cool.%

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Smith is charged with making terroristic threats and simple assault.

O’Neil said she agreed with the filing of charges.

“They asked me what should we do, and I said she should be arrested. You don't pull a knife on little kids,” she said.

Cox Media Group