WASHINGTON — Family members are blaming drugs and depression after a father in Prince George’s County, Maryland, was accused of stabbing his two toddlers last weekend.

Christian Dillard, 25, is charged with trying to kill his 2- and 3-year-old sons Saturday night, and with earlier Saturday sexually assaulting a woman with whom he had been in a romantic relationship.

Dillard’s mother, Michelle Mattison, tells ABC7 she was there when it happened and ran to help when she heard the children screaming.

“It was a terrible sight to see; the stab wounds in my youngest grand and my older grand just crying,” she said.

Relatives say Dillard was a good father, but had been deeply depressed about a recent breakup. Mattison tells ABC7 he also was on the drug PCP.

“He was using that and I think this has triggered to him doing what he did, because this is not the normal Christian that I know,” she said.

Dillard’s children are recovering at a hospital. Dillard is in jail, being held without bond.

See a report from ABC7: