A mother of two got the shock of her life yesterday afternoon when her 10-year old son hanged himself as she desperately sought the release of her older son from police custody.
Dead is 10-year old St Paul’s Primary School, Plaisance student Christopher Bernard called ‘Owen’, whose address was given as Lot 17, Prince William Street, Plaisance and Lot 65, Better Hope South, both on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD).
According to the young man’s mother, Vanessa Bernard, she spent most of the past two days “running behind the police to release and at least see meh 14-year old son”, who along with three other teenagers were arrested by the police on Friday afternoon for theft. She said that the boy and his three friends, two of whom are his cousins were accused by an aunt of one of the boys of stealing two cases of alcoholic beverages from a drinking spot at Victoria Road in Plaisance near ‘the line top’.
She said that incident occurred last Tuesday and the aunt of one of the boys reported the matter to the Sparendaam Police Station. According to her, on Friday afternoon the police arrested the four boys, including her son who was picked up on the road. She said that since then she made several unsuccessful attempts to see her son.
She said the mother of two of the others also made attempts to see their sons to no avail. Cindy Rose told Stabroek News that she travelled from Barbados over the weekend after hearing that her two sons, ages 14 and 16 were in the police lock-ups at Sparendaam. Rose and the Bernards are cousins.
Rose said that the family even hired a lawyer yesterday in desperation to see their sons but the police officers at Sparendaam “keep pushing we round”. A vocal and upset Rose stated that the family later learnt that the four boys were “split up and they had them separately questioning them over two case Guinness”. The two women then visited the Turkeyen Police Station where they learnt that Bernard’s son was being kept but they noted that, “the police there tell we go back to Sparendaam”. Bernard said that the family late yesterday afternoon decided to “go to the media”.
The grieving mother and Rose visited Stabroek News yesterday afternoon around 5 pm and as the two woman waited to see a reporter, one of them received a phone call following which she broke down in tears. The call was actually placed by Christopher’s cousin who found him hanging by a tie in the living room of the family’s home at Better Hope around 4:45 pm.
Nap
The cousin told this newspaper that she and another teenager were at home at the time of the incident when the other teen decided to take a nap. She said that Christopher was “sitting and playing around near the window” most of the afternoon. She said that she was reading a few biblical proverbs to Christopher following which she left to take a nap as it was raining at the time. Shortly after she got up and the teary-eyed girl related that as she emerged from the room, she saw her cousin hanging from the ceiling. She then raised an alarm.
At the scene last evening a neighbour related that she saw Christopher moments before his death, “playing and jumping around by the window”, but she noted that the boy closed the windows when he saw her. She said that soon after she saw the young man’s cousin running out of the house relating what she had seen.
The lad was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) where he was pronounced dead on arrival. He would have celebrated his 11th birthday on Old Year’s Day this year.
At the lad’s Better Hope home, relatives and neighbours gathered to lend support to the boy’s grieving mother, who is a single parent. Relatives noted that since Christopher’s brother was arrested on Friday, the boy could not sleep or eat and was uneasy most of the time. His grandmother stated that the duo was always in each other’s company, and she noted that Christopher would not go to sleep at nights without his brother being next to him.
She said that the boy’s mother worked hard to maintain them.
“Imagine them didn’t want she see her son who they lock-up for two case a Guinness ..and now look what happen”, Rose noted .
Other relatives expressed anger at the situation, one of the boy’s aunt noting, “that’s how children does end up turning criminals because they branding them from a early age”.
`Sir Lewis’
Christopher’s class teacher `Sir Lewis’ stood in shock as he learnt of the lad’s death and as he entered the family’s dwelling last evening he recounted fond memories of the boy’s days at school. He said that Christopher was a “B student who had the potential and we know that he could do better at school but he needed the extra push”. He said that the lad was always jovial and he recounted a composition which the boy wrote on Friday.
He said that the story was entitled “Three wishes which I would like to come through” and the class teacher noted that Christopher mentioned that he wished his mother had money to buy a house and a car so that the family could be happy. He said that the story’s contents moved him and he later spoke to the young man and encouraged him to work hard in order to achieve better grades at school.
The boy’s death came two days after two West Demerara teenagers took their lives, allegedly after one of their parents did not approve of their relationship. Avinash Persaud, 18, of Greenwich Park, East Bank Essequibo and Kaymattie Hussein, 16, of Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara (WCD) were found hanging on Friday morning at an abandoned house at Uitvlugt Pasture, WCD. The two were last seen in their respective homes on Sunday and Monday last.
