A local woman was taken into custody on child abuse charges on Monday after barricading herself inside the attic of her home.
On February 5, Allen police attempted to serve an arrest warrant for a 36-year-old woman named Lul Nyachua Top at a residence in the 1500 block of Tanglewood Drive and ended up in a two-hour SWAT standoff.
A neighbor filmed the dramatic episode and Top’s subsequent arrest after SWAT deployed chemical agents to force her outside.
Allen police officers had been called to the residence on January 8 after receiving reports of a domestic disturbance in which Top allegedly beat her husband with a stick. Top’s six children, who reportedly witnessed the incident, were removed by Child Protective Services shortly after.
At the Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County, Top’s children allegedly tested positive for cocaine and testified to longstanding threats, abuse, and torture at the hands of their mother. An interviewer noted that two of the children — a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old — had marks “resembling knife cuts,” according to Fox 4 KDFW.
“When the children can’t find the alcohol [for Top], Top becomes angry and threatens to cut the children’s hands and fingers off,” the arrest affidavit reads, according to WFAA.
One incident described by the children involved Top allegedly balling up her 3-year-old daughter and trying to stuff her into a hot oven. Her 10-year-old son reported having to fight her to get the child away.
Top, who was on probation after pleading guilty to two felony assaults in 2020, has denied abusing her children. She was booked in Collin County jail on six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, one count of assault causing bodily injury to a family member, one count of assault of a peace officer, and two counts of assault of a public servant. Her bond was set at $600,000.
In 2022, a total of 182 Texas children died due to abuse and neglect, with 61% being under the age of 3, according to data from the Department of Family and Protective Services.
The Dallas Police Department, which investigates child abuse and other crimes against children, has been hampered by a longstanding staffing shortage. DPD fields approximately 3,000 officers when a City of Dallas’ size should have closer to 4,000 on staff, according to a City report.
DPD will have a budget of just $654 million this fiscal year, with City officials opting to spend far fewer tax dollars on the police force than their counterparts in other high-crime jurisdictions, such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
