LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Ayoncee Hicks woke up Halloween morning to a bright, orange flicker coming from the room where her 19-month-old son was sleeping.
She went to the bedroom and saw fire.
“I started screaming and panicking," Hicks said.
It was 4:00 a.m. and flames were spreading into the second floor unit at the Tiffany Square Apartments in Lakewood.
Hicks said her friend, Tevon Thomas, was sleeping on her couch.
“I like told him like, ‘oh my gosh, there’s a fire, get up! Get up!'” Hicks recalled.
As flames reached the living room, Hicks said Thomas tried the front door. Fire pushed him back. A window seemed like safest way out.
“[Thomas] got out and he was hanging onto the ledge of my window, and he grabbed my baby with his other hand, and then they dropped down and fell," Hicks said.
Hicks, who has a fear of heights, considered running through the fire instead of escaping through her window. She was inhaling smoke to the point it was coming out of nose and mouth. She felt like she was about to pass out.
"That’s when I just fell," Hicks said. "I didn’t jump. I just fell.”
Hicks, her baby boy and her friend survived the fall and escaped the fire. Another mother and child did not make it out alive.
“Two beautiful souls, you know," Hicks said. "Just really good people.”
Kathleen Payton, 31, and her 10-year-old daughter, Jazmine Payton-Aguayo, died in the fire that Lakewood Police believe was intentionally set.
Agents with Lakewood Police arrested two boys on suspicion of first-degree murder and first-degree arson on Sunday evening.
“Kids shouldn’t even have been out at 4 in the morning, you know," Hicks said. "I have no words for what they deserve."
The Denver Gazette reports that the boys are 12 and 14 years of age. They attended a virtual Jefferson County court hearing on Monday from Rocky Mountain Youth Services Center.
During the hearing, prosecutors said the boys were kicked out of a unit at the Tiffany Square Apartments and then started a fire near the building, according to the Gazette.
Prosecutors, quoting the arrest affidavit, said in court that the older of the two boys returned with something glowing in his hand. The judge referred to it as a "Molotov cocktail or other incendiary," the Gazette reported.
Hicks said that she's seen the boys accused of setting the fire around the Tiffany Square Apartments before. She can't understand why they would set a fire that took the lives of her two neighbors.
“It’s just sad all around," Hicks said.
Hicks said that she and her son spent days in the hospital and were released earlier this week.
She has said that she still has lumps and bruises on the bottoms of her feet. Her tailbone and ribs still hurt. Her son's tiny lungs are still recovering from smoke inhalation.
"I hope nobody ever has to wake up to nothing like that cause it was a nightmare," Hicks said. "Literally, like it was just heartbreaking.”
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