Lul N. Top mug shot (Collin County Jail) and being arrested by SWAT team (WFAA screenshot)
A 36-year-old mother in Texas accused of abusing her husband and physically and emotionally torturing her children — even trying to put one of them in a hot oven — was arrested this week following a standoff with a SWAT team. Lul N. Top was taken into custody on Monday and charged with six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a news release from the Allen Police Department, the agency’s SWAT team at about 8:53 a.m. on Feb. 12 responded to a residence located in the 1500 block of Tanglewood Drive to execute a search warrant and serve Top with the six aggravated assault warrants.
“When the SWAT team entered her residence, Top retreated into the attic and barricaded herself inside,” the release states. “Attempts to contact Top and negotiate with her were unsuccessful, and, after an hour of trying, chemical agents were deployed. At approximately 10:50 AM, Top surrendered and was taken into custody.”
A probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime provided additional details about the circumstances that led to the charges against Top.
Authorities say the investigation into Top began when police on Jan. 8, 2024, were called to the home where she and her family had been living for about a year. The call came after Top allegedly grabbed a piece of wood off a door frame in the home and used it to repeatedly strike her husband while her six children watched in horror. The attack allegedly caused visible injuries to Top’s husband.
The children were removed from the home by Child Protective Services.
Investigators looking into the alleged attack on the husband then interviewed Top’s six children, resulting in additional allegations of physical abuse against Top — the most shocking of which accused her of intentionally trying to roast her 3-year-old child in the oven.
The 3-year-old told investigators that Top “had tried to put her inside the oven that was on and described it as being hot,” the affidavit states. The child then “stated that the oven hurt.” The toddler’s 4-year-old sibling said they witnessed the oven incident and confirmed that the oven was hot.
According to a report from Dallas Fox affiliate KDFW, it was only after Top’s 10-year-old child stepped in and physically fought Top to separate her from the toddler, who was ushered upstairs to hide, that Top eventually relented.
Investigators said that both the 3- and 4-year-old children had “scars resembling knife cuts” on their bodies. Both children confirmed to authorities that “Top had used a knife on them to make those marks.”
The 6-year-old child also made disturbing allegations about Top during an interview on Jan. 26, saying that Top “has held a rectangular knife (cleaver) and threatened to kill everyone.”
“(The 6-year-old) explained that Top drinks a lot of alcohol and makes all the children help look for the alcohol when Top can’t find any,” police wrote. “When the children can’t find the alcohol, Top becomes angry and threatens to cut the children’s hands and fingers off.”
The 6-year-old also spoke to authorities about the oven incident, saying that Top “told them to turn the oven on so that Top could put (the 3-year-old) in there as punishment for not finding alcohol,” the affidavit states. The child also noted that the kids regularly hide the knives in the house so that Top “can’t threaten to harm them.”
Chemical tests allegedly showed that all six of Top’s children tested positive for having cocaine in their systems.
During her interview with police, Top denied ever abusing any of her children.
