NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Police say an argument over paying a babysitter escalated into an attack in the Bronx that left a mother with multiple stab wounds.

Officers were called to the Edenwald Houses on East 229th Street in the Bronx around 2:30 p.m. on Monday, reports CBS2’s Valerie Castro.

Investigators say 27-year-old Miriahm Paloma stabbed a woman in her arms and torso after fighting about money for childcare services. Two children were there at the time, a 4-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy.

“I didn’t know what to do,” said the mother, who did not want to be identified. “I told her to put the knife down, she wouldn’t put the knife down.”

Police said Paloma was taken into custody and is facing charges of second degree assault, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon, and acting in a manner to injure a child under 17.

The children were not harmed. The mother was listed in serious but stable condition at Jacobi Hospital and is expected to survive.

The mother said Paloma was a caretaker for her special needs children, provided by a private agency.

“Previously she had told me that the agency owed her money, and about two hours later she just came out of nowhere and attacked me with a knife,” said the mother. “She stabbed me in my back twice, there was blood all over my apartment and children were running back and forth.

“She told me she wasn’t going to leave, then she started shouting, ‘I want my money, I want my money,'” she said.

A neighbor who also did not want to be identified said she heard the victim and her children screaming.

“All I heard her was screaming my name and saying please call the cops, I’ve been stabbed,” said the neighbor. “Somebody help me, somebody please call the cops, she’s trying to kill me.”

The victim says after the initial attack, she grabbed her children and barricaded them in a bedroom.

“All of a sudden I ran across the hallway down to the kids’ room, locked the kids’ room, pushed the bureau, pushed a bunk bed, everything and I’m screaming out the window for police, for help, for ambulance,” she said.

The victim says the home care agency should also be held accountable for the assault.

“Obviously this is a very unstable person and the agency that supposed to give support to disabled children does not know how to hire people,” she said.