Young sisters in US arrested for brutally killing mother

Erica Hall, left, and her 14-year-old daughter Amariyona Hall. Photos / Facebook; Pike County Sheriffs Office

A 12-year-old and a 14-year-old girl have both been arrested in relation to the brutal killing of their mother in the US.

The two girls were arrested in Mississippi for the stabbing and shooting of their mother, allegedly as payback after they were punished for trying to run her over.

The teen, Amariyona Hall, and her younger sister were arrested on Friday after their mother Erica Hall, 32, was found dead. The mother-of-four had been stabbed multiple times and shot once in the chest, according to police.

Emergency services rushed to the scene after relatives found Hall covered in blood but could not revive her. Authorities quickly established the two girls had allegedly killed their mother.

"They found out the daughters — two teenagers, juveniles — allegedly did it," Pike County Sheriff Kenny Cotton told the McComb Enterprise Journal. He added that both girls are scheduled for mental evaluations. "They're charged with murder and we're going to apply the law."

The two girls had reportedly tried to run the mum over days earlier. Hall then punished them for it and, in retaliation, the girls allegedly killed her.

"With something like that, she should have made charges and had them arrested then," Cotton said, referring to the earlier alleged assault.

According to neighbours, she'd also taken the girls' cell phones away days earlier.

"I can't imagine what's going on inside their minds to process that," Coton said. "A mum is a mum no matter what."

Amariyona Hall, 14, has been charged as an adult.

The 12-year-old was not named and remains in custody.

Relatives say the woman was stabbed inside the house but managed to stagger outside, where she ended up dying.

"She was stabbed in the back," Hall's aunt Robin Coney told WLBT. "The knife was still in her back."

She added the girls denied the crime: "Tee Tee, we didn't do this," she told the station.

"And I was like, 'OK, if y'all didn't do it, where were y'all when the people that was doing it did it?'" she said.

"It was [Erica's] gun," Coney said. "It was her car. So they had got it out. So I guess when they were doing all that to her, she was probably trying to get to her gun to fight for her life."

According to the aunt, the girls calmly knocked on the neighbour's door after the killing and asked for a ride, claiming their grandmother had just died.