Mentally challenged man runs amok at doubles stand

STACY MOORE

Therem were screams and bloody scenes yesterday at a doubles stand in Tarouba, San Fernando where a mentally challenged man grabbed a two-year-old boy from his mother’s hands and began squeezing him violently.

The man also struck a policewoman with a piece of wood. The man, from Stony Hill, Tarodale, was only subdued when he was shot in a leg by police who had been on mobile patrol in the area. He is at the San Fernando General Hospital in stable condition and is being guarded by police. Police said the man, who was dressed in a short pants and was bare backed, approached Mansram Samaroo’s doubles stand at about 9am. He ordered a bottle of water. As Samaroo, 52, turned to hand him the bottle, the man grabbed the child from his mother.

Samaroo told Newsday the man began screaming and squeezing the child violently.

“I didn’t even get to hand him the water, it happened so fast,“ Samaroo said.

“This man was screaming like a madman and squeezing the child. He was squeezing this child so tight you could see that the child was gasping for breath.”

He said he and his customers tried to rescue the child, but the man refused to let go.

“I could not believe what was happening. I felt so helpless. He threatened if anyone came near to him he would kill them.”

The mother was crying and screaming for someone to rescue her son. Fruit vendor Emerson Dulan, 36, Newsday was told, ran a short distance away and flagged down a police car. Two officers went to the scene and told the man to release the boy but he began screaming at the police. The child was eventually released.

But the man then picked up a stone and smashed Samaroo’s glass case. Holding a piece of broken glass, he then threatened to stab customers who came near him.

“Everyone was running and screaming. He then went to a fruit van and began pelting fruits at people while holding the piece of glass in his hands,” Samaroo said. Police tried to restrain him.

“This madman peeled figs and chewed it in his mouth and then spat it on the police. He then took up a piece of wood and struck the female police officer,”

It was at this point, Newsday was told, the policewoman’s colleague pulled out his gun and shot the man who was then put in the police vehicle. Eyewitnesses said he began to wipe his wounds and smear the blood on the vehicle. The child and the policewoman were taken for medical attention.

Mon Repos police are investigating.