'What are you doing son?' - mother's plea to son after he stabbed sister

Lynette James said to 33-year-old Melvin James: “What are you doing son? I love you,” before escaping to lock herself in the bathroom.

The tragedy unfolded at Mrs James’ fourth floor flat in Merry Hill, Wolverhampton, in March when her son fatally stabbed his sister Anne Marie, a mother of five, before critically injuring his mother and turning the knife on himself. He also died at the scene.

Emergency response officers told the coroner how repeated tasering had little effect on six foot three inch James who kept moving towards them, ‘saturated’ in blood, still holding a knife.

Within minutes armed officers had surrounded Highfields Court and sealed off Leasowes Drive.

Leon James told the inquest at Black Country Coroners Court how his older brother was a caring man, who volunteered for a homeless charity and had been prime carer for their mother after she suffered a stroke.

Six years ago, following her recovery, he went to Scotland to finish a social care qualification at university.

But on visits to Wolverhampton last year he showed signs of mental illness.

In August he said he felt he was the black sheep, responsible for upsets that had happened to the family. On a later visit he talked about illuminati and conspiracy theories. He was also drinking and smoking heavily.

On February 4 this year he was picked up by Scottish police who found him walking in the road in the early hours. He was admitted to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and diagnosed with drug induced psychosis.

Leon James said he had received repeated calls from his brother saying that Anne Marie and their mother were in danger from Megatron, a Transformer superhero. He was sectioned but released after 72 hours after making progress. Mr James took his brother home to stay with their mother.

When he was alerted to a police incident at the flats on March 8 by a cousin, he tried ringing the family inside but there was no reply. He rang police and said he thought it had something to do with his brother.

Lynette James, who was stabbed several times in the stomach, told police in a statement read out by the coroner that she thought she was going to die.

That morning she had got up to find all the windows in the flat had been opened despite the cold weather.

She said Melvin was pacing from the kitchen to his bedroom and was ‘hot and sweating’. She went for a shower but heard Anne Marie scream ‘Mom’ and through the door she saw her daughter face downwards on the floor not moving.

Mrs James tried to call the concierge but her son pulled the telephone from the wall. She said: “I could see his eyes were red and fixed, he was staring at me. Then he suddenly plunged the knife into me again and again.”

She dialled 999 from inside the bathroom.

Police smashed a hole in the front door and threw two stun grenades into the flat where James had returned after the earlier confrontation with officers.

But he continued to fight back, stabbing at an officer who had put his arm through the door in an attempt to unlock it. They made entry only after tasering James several times more.

The hearing continues.