A 9-year-old boy has been charged with trying to kill his 5-year-old sister by stabbing her with a kitchen knife inside their Florida apartment last month, officials said.

The boy was charged Tuesday with attempted first-degree murder and appeared in court on Wednesday in the central Florida city of Ocala, prosecutors said.

The mother of the children told police she left the apartment to get the mail and to get some candy for her children from a neighbor. When she returned, she said she found the boy stabbing his sister with a kitchen knife in a bedroom.

The child told investigators he thought of killing his sister two days before the Jan. 28 stabbing, Ocala police said.

The girl was released last Friday from the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville.

The boy remains detained and is being represented by the public defender’s office, which did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

The public defender’s office is awaiting results of a competency examination that will determine whether the boy understands the charges, the Ocala Star-Banner reported.