A Georgia couple on Friday said that they forgive their two sons accused of brutally beating and trying to suffocate them earlier this month at their home in suburban Atlanta, according to WSB-TV 2.
Speaking outside Gwinnett County Courthouse in Lawrenceville, Ga., Yvonne and Zachery Ervin told the television news station that they "hold no grudges against" their sons, Cameron Ervin, 17, and Christopher Ervin, 22, who allegedly confessed to the Sept. 5 attacks.
Police say the brothers allegedly stabbed their father and tried to suffocate both parents with a plastic bag during the attacks, according to the New York Daily News. They are also accused of drugging their parents and trying to burn down the house, according to the report.
Police found that the home’s gas line had been tampered with, the report says. The mother may have saved the couple’s lives by sneaking away to call 911 from the family home while her husband distracted them during the attacks, police said.
“Those were not our boys that did that to us,” Yvonne Ervin told WSB-TV. “We did not raise them that way.
“We understand there are consequences for what they did,” she continued in the interview with WSB-TV. “They understand that, but we’re just praying the world forgives them in the same way we forgive them.”
The couple spoke out about the incident for the first time Friday after a court hearing for their sons, the report says.
“We forgive our sons; we love them unconditionally,” Zachery Ervin told the television news station. “We have to make sure that they understand that to strengthen themselves.”
A motive in the attacks is unclear, but one of the suspects allegedly told investigators that he had plotted to murder his parents “since he was 11 years old,” writes the News.
Read more at WSB-TV 2 and the New York Daily News.