BOY CHOPS OFF MOM’S HAND

A 15-YEAR-OLD form three Presentation College student, in a fit of rage, yesterday chopped off his mother’s right hand and then chopped her several times on the back of the neck after an argument at their Waterloo home. The teen, who was in his school uniform, with blood splattered over his shirt, was found in a daze at the nearby Waterloo Cremation site. While being escorted to a police van, he began weeping and told police he was sorry.

He said, “I did it because my mother took away my cellphone the night before and I found it was unfair.” The boy was taken to the Brasso Police station, which has a detention centre for juveniles.

The boy was at his Butler Village, Carapichaima home with his mother who is a nurse, early yesterday when they argued over her decision to take away his cellphone. The teen took a cutlass and chopped off her right hand at the wrist. He then chopped her several times on the back of the neck. As he left the house, his father met him and asked why he was not at school and why his clothes were soiled. The boy did not respond but rode off on his bicycle.

When his father went upstairs to the bedroom, he found his wife semi-conscious and bleeding, with her severed hand on the floor. He called a neighbour, who put the hand in a bag of ice. The injured woman, a nurse for several years, told her neighbour and husband what to do to stop the bleeding.

She was taken to the San Fernando Hospital, treated and warded in critical condition. Yesterday, she had emergency surgery to have her hand re-attached and to save her life because she had lost so much blood.

Police led by Sgt Boxer and including PC Gibson, interviewed the boy’s father, who told them his son had been acting strangely within recent weeks, and they suspected he was using drugs. His cellphone was taken away as punishment, but his father expressed regret over the move and believes his wife would not be fighting for her life if they had not done so.

Investigators said yesterday that they would have to await advice from police legal officers before the boy is questioned. Brasso police station is a juvenile booking centre and he will remain there until Legal Aid assigns a state-appointed lawyer to speak with him. Only after that will police be able to interview him. If he is charged he will appear before the children’s court in Fyzabad.

Yesterday, Central Division police described the incident as the most incredible for the year and said it reflects what society has now become. Head of Central Division Snr Supt Inraj Balram said the incident was very disturbing. “It is appalling for a 15-year-old who is attending a prestigious school to resort to that kind of violence against his own mother. I am pleading with people who have troubled children to seek counselling for them,” Balram said.

Education Minister Anthony Garcia said the ministry received a report from School Supervision personnel on the chopping. Garcia said the information he had was that the incident occurred after the mother scolded her son about his school work.

He said the ministry is mobilising all necessary resources and experts from the Student Support Services Division of the Ministry will provide counselling and intervention for teachers and students of the suspect’s school. The Division will also extend similar services to the student’s relatives.