Mother who took plunge with children tried to go back

10-year-old Lashaun Armstrong just escaped the minivan his mother drove into the Hudson River, but he remembers what she said before he climbed out the window, according to CNN. 

The boy flagged down Meave Ryan after escaping the minivan, yelling "help me". The boy told Ryan his mother drove her car into the river. Eventually, he told her his mother had gone into the backseat with the children while the car was moving toward the water. She cradled them and said "If I'm going to die...you're all going to die with me."

Lashaun then told Ryan that as he was trying to escape, his mother yelled, "Oh my God, I made a mistake." She tried to reverse the car out of the water but couldn't.

The van was submerged eight feet when responders found it, all it's inhabitants dead. Armstrong was 25 and her children were 11-months, two and five. 

Lashaun said her mother thought she had been cheated on and drove off franticly.