(Trinidad Newsday) A TWO-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister witnessed the brutal chopping of their mother and grandparents at the family’s Palo Seco home on Sunday.
But before the suspect could get his hands on the children, their mother Lizann Forrester, 30, yelled to them to run out of the house.
Neighbours believe if it were not been for her screams to her children at that moment, the 53-year-old man would have chopped them.
Forrester and her parents Leslie Forrester, 57, and Jennifer Alexander, 55, are in critical condition at the San Fernando General Hospital.
Medical sources said the mother of four received the most chops, on her neck, back, and chest. Her parents were chopped on the faces, hands, and backs. The father’s left hand was severed at the wrist.
According to a police report, around midday, the man entered the family home with two cutlasses and first attacked the parents, who were in the living room. As Forrester tried to run out of the house with her children, he attacked her from behind and she fell to the ground.
Neighbours said they realised what was happening when they heard screams.
One told Newsday said they saw the girl in the road, shaking and crying, with the toddler in her arms,
“She said her mother told her to run and she took her baby brother and just started running out of the house.
“These children were lucky to get out in time because I know that man would have chopped them.”
The girl sat the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination in April.
She was taken into a neighbour’s house, where they tried to comfort her.
“She was out of breath and said to help her mother and grandparents, as the man was inside chopping them .”
When Newsday visited the home, there were bloodstains in the yard. Neighbours said Forrester managed to crawl out of the house into the yard, but the man followed her and continued chopped her.
One neighbour said, “I could not believe what I was seeing. This man was chopping this woman non-stop using the two cutlasses. I screamed and told him to stop, but he continued.”
It was only when residents came together and began pelting stones at him that he ran away. He went inside a nearby house until he was arrested.
Up to late yesterday, he was still being questioned by Santa Flora police.
