MANDEVILLE, Manchester — An 11-year-old boy and his five-year-old cousin have been left traumatised after witnessing his mother Shadae Brown, 28, being stabbed repeatedly with three knives, allegedly by her spouse, despite the child’s cries for mercy last Friday night in Newport.
The boy’s grief-stricken grandmother, Donna Walker, told the Jamaica Observer that the ordeal has left the child living in fear after he was allegedly threatened by the murder suspect.
“The son said to him [suspect], ‘Weh you a do mi mother so fah’ and him seh, ‘Move from yah suh before mi stab you too,’ ” Walker said as she shared the gruesome details of her daughter’s murder.
A senior police source said investigators believe the couple had a dispute about 8:30 pm. A police report said the man then proceeded to use several knives to stab Brown repeatedly before fleeing the scene.
The children were reportedly locked inside the house with Brown’s body. After hours of trying to get out of the house to seek assistance, the 11-year-old alerted neighbours.
A bus owned by Brown’s relatives, which was given to the accused to drive, was found a short distance from the house with the keys inside and was reportedly used by neighbours to transport Brown to hospital.
The suspect was on Saturday afternoon held by the police. Head of the Manchester police, Superintendent Shane McCalla told the Observer on Monday that investigators will be charging the suspect and placing him before the courts.
Walker said her daughter allowed the suspect back into an apartment in Daley’s Grove, Newport, two weeks ago, after the two had separated in January following an alleged dispute in which a chair was reportedly thrown at the woman.
“[In] January he lifted up the chair [from] round the table because he wanted to talk to her and she was never in a talking mood, so he lifted up the chair and lick after her and she blocked it with her hand. It even lick out the bulb in the kitchen. She rushed to the door, and the force that she held the handle with , it popped off,” said Walker.
“He left and kept on calling me and complaining. He called her and she blocked him. Within her, she [was] finished with him but then he kept calling and begging her to come back, and she with her soft heart felt sorry for him. She is that type of person so he came back one week and a couple days [ago, then] this happened,” added Walker.
She said counselling is now being arranged for the two children.
“Come on, you take three knives? They were in a [holder] on the kitchen counter that she got for her Christmas present from [her workplace]. He kicked off the room door and went in there. She and two little boys were in there,” said Walker.
The distraught grandmother said she was a caregiver to her grandson while Brown worked as a surgical assistant at a private medical facility in Mandeville.
“I would be there today looking to see 3:00 pm and know that she soon come, and is either me go start the dinner although she would say, ‘Mommy, don’t cook,’ ” said a teary-eyed Walker.
She described her daughter as an angel and detailed how she worked hard after becoming pregnant at age 17.
“She got pregnant right pon graduation, but she did the graduation photo and everything. She never walked [during] the graduation [ceremony]… She started working odd jobs, like in bars. While working [at a bar in Alligator Pond] she sent herself to UWI Open Campus where she did practical nursing [courses],” said Walker.
“After that she said, ‘Mommy I would work in the [operating] theatre.’ My mother in the Turks and Caicos funded her,” added Walker.
She said Brown had been working at the private medical facility for close to eight months.
“She is in heaven; I know that for sure because she always saying ‘Mommy, you need to go church and accept God,’ because she do her own fasting at home,” said Walker.
