Sheriff’s deputies in North Carolina have arrested a white man on charges of killing his Black wife earlier this month.

Alexander Dzikowski, 33, was charged with first-degree murder after authorities determined he stabbed his wife several times during a domestic dispute.

Tiara Dzikowski, a 34-year-old mother of four children, died during the Dec. 6 ordeal.

The incident unfolded about 10:15 a.m. in the couple’s Battleboro, North Carolina, home. According to the Nash County Sheriff’s Office, three of the children were in the Pine Street home at the time. They escaped and ran to a house next door. The children told their neighbor that Alexander Dzikowski had stabbed Tiara. The woman died at the scene.

Deputies said at least one of the juveniles witnessed the stabbing, People reported.

“This was a cowardly act in front of these children,” DaJuan Stroud-Marshall, Tiara Dzikowski’s cousin, told WRAL-TV. “You can only imagine a child who has seen this, what’s going through their head.”

Alexander Dzikowski had self-inflicted wounds by the time deputies arrived. He was taken into custody and rushed to UNC-Nash Hospital, then later transferred to an undisclosed medical facility for treatment, deputies said.

Arrest records show Alexander Dzikowski was booked into the Nash County jail Dec. 8 and formally charged with murder and three counts of assault while minor present. He had his first appearance in district court Thursday, Dec. 10. A judge denied bond on all charges, booking records showed.

Tiara Dzikowski’s cousin, Brittany Judd, set up a GoFundMe page to relocate the woman’s children to Maryland, where other relatives live. The children’s ages are 12, 9, 5 and 3 months, according to the page, which had raised more than $5,000 by Dec. 14.

Stroud-Marshall told WRAL that Alexander Dzikowski is the biological father of the two younger kids, the youngest of whom is in NICU at a local hospital.

Judd said the family is working with social services to ensure the infant is reunited with family members when released from the hospital.

“Tiara lost her life to domestic violence,” the page indicated. “She loved her children and her family.”