By Lakhram Bhagirat
After years of mistreating and neglecting her children, a 26-year-old mother of two has fatally stabbed her three-year-old son because she reportedly had a dream that she would die on Saturday.
The infant Ramdeo Ferreira of Lot 585-Fifteenth Street, Foulis, East Coast Demerara is now dead following an ordeal that, according to the Police report, began at about 09:45h on Saturday when this mother began pursuing her hapless infant in the yard with a knife in her hand.
A few minutes later, ranks at the Enmore Police Outpost received a report that the child had been stabbed by his mother; and when they arrived on the scene, they found the child lying unconscious in a pool of blood with suspected stab wounds to his neck and back.
Police rushed the three-year-old to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), but he died at about noon (12:00h) while receiving medical treatment.
The mother has since been taken into custody, and is said to be cooperating with investigators.
Guyana Times understands that she has since told investigators that she had had a dream that she would die on Saturday, and she did not want to leave her favourite child behind, so she decided to kill him.
The child’s father, 50-year-old Shamlall Mahadeo, has said he was at work when he received news about what had happened; and rushed back home only to find a pool of blood on the bed and everyone missing.
He said his wife would usually neglect the children when he is at work, and they would have constant arguments over the children’s welfare.
The grieving man related that his wife’s erratic behaviour intensified on Tuesday night.
“Since Tuesday night like she start trip out, and she talking all kind of thing and making plenty noise. I went to the Enmore Police Station and report it, and them never come! The neighbours all report it, but (Police) nah come! Them only come after she done kill the boy!
That was she favourite one. Just this morning (Saturday) he was telling me ‘Daddy, bye-bye’, when I was going to work,” the man said amidst his tears.
Neighbours became aware of the incident after the eldest son, four-year-old Sukhdeo Ferreira, ran over to a relative to inform them about what had transpired. Mahadeo’s niece, Chandrawatie Veira, was the one to whom he related the incident.
“The big one now he was afraid, and he decided to run out now and run with a rush and run straight to me and tell me that he mommy jook up he brother and that he bleeding and he deh pon the bed,” the woman related.
She said that at this time she began panicking and raised an alarm. She said the Police were contacted, and nobody entered the house until the Police arrived.
“We go behind the Police, and when we go the child was already like half dead, really helpless. He wasn’t even crying, he eye wasn’t even opened; he was really helpless. She was standing up there and he deh pon the bed in a pool of blood, and like she don’t know what going on.
“She refused to hold the child in the Police vehicle when they take he to carry he at the hospital,” Veira said.
Veira told Guyana Times that the woman had used a “dull knife without handle” to stab the toddler.
Neglect
Veira said her uncle has been with his wife for over five years, and the woman never really cared for the children. She said the boys would quite often be seen playing on the road clad only in their underwear.
“This morning (Saturday), before everything happened, I was sitting on this chair eating when I see she. The whole place open, and I see she run out the yard, running on the road with a speed, the children screaming behind she and running…If the lil boy didn’t come out and talk, we won’t know,” Veira related.
The constant neglect of the boys led Veira to call the Child Care and Protection Agency to intervene, and the officers had visited the home, but no one was at home. According to neighbours, the CPA officers never returned.
Regret
Another neighbour has said her only regret is not breaking down the door to the house and attempting to rescue the younger Ferreira. She said that after the older Ferreira sibling had raised the alarm, everyone was afraid to go into the house, because they feared that the woman would have been armed.
“It is sad, because things could have happened and not (reach to a stage as bad) as this. I heard the Child Protection was supposed to come in, but everybody just dragging them foot, and I hope when them see this, then them can take action. If everybody formed a group and go in and saved the child then he could have been saved. That is my only regret,” the neighbour said.
“The saddest part is when she stabbed that child he couldn’t have scream. When I heard the lil boy come and say, ‘Mommy stab me brother and blood coming out,’ I holler from over here, and I said, ‘Brenda you killed that child? You killed that child?’ and it is just shocking,” the woman added while attempting to hold back the tears.
She said the mother of the children woman is afraid of her, since she would quite often threaten to call the Police when the neglect became overbearing. She said sometimes the children would be home alone during the nights, and at 02:00h they would be walking the road searching for their parents.
The woman added that as recently as Friday night, the suspect was having one of her episodes, and she spend the better part of the night and into Saturday morning banging on the walls and galvanized zinc sheets. The Police were summoned, but the woman continued her erratic behaviour.
Mental illness
Initial reports suggest that the suspect is mentally challenged, and this may have led to her murdering her child. But according to her husband, his wife was never diagnosed with any form of mental illness.
He said his wife’s behaviour was always the same, and she would have been to doctors, but was never diagnosed.
For now, the woman is in Police custody at the Beterverwagting Station, and a post mortem examination is expected to be conducted on young Ferreira’s body on Monday. The child was supposed to begin his nursery education in September and was very excited at the prospect of joining his brother at school.
