Senior Reporter
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
An autopsy on the body of 12-year-old Tariq Toney confirmed that he died from a stab wound to the right side of his neck on Monday.
However, investigators said it provided no evidence as to whether or not the incident was accidental, as stated by his parents.
Forensic Pathologist Dr Parthasarathi Pramanik conducted the post-mortem on the boy at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday following identification by his mother, Jayloy Toney-Clarke and aunt Stacy Dyette.
Princes Town CID officers said there was no CCTV footage or other evidence or statement to contradict the initial accounts that he might have fallen onto a knife.
According to a police report, Tariq, a Fifth Company Baptist Primary School pupil, was at his Indian Walk, Princes Town home.
He was picking and cutting coconuts from a tree at the back of the house and even carried one for Toney-Clarke and returned to the backyard.
The mother told police that she and her husband, Arnold, were in their bedroom around 5.30 pm when she went to the window and called Tariq to come inside and bathe. She looked away, and a minute later, Tariq entered her bedroom bleeding from a wound to his neck, saying, “Look what happened, Mom. Look what happened.”
Investigators said Toney-Clarke called for an ambulance, but after waiting some time, she contacted her brother at 6.30 pm, who came from Manahambre Road, Princes Town.
He and his relatives put Tariq in a van and took him to the Princes Town District Health Facility.
Medical staff told police that Tariq was already unresponsive when he arrived at 7.08 pm.
Despite emergency treatment, he died 50 minutes later.
Cpl Clarence and PC Thomas of the Princes Town CID responded to the report of Tariq’s death and took statements and a medical report from staff at the health facility. A doctor suggested that based on the trajectory of the three-centimetre-long puncture wound, which was at least eight centimetres deep, Tariq might have fallen onto the knife.
The family declined an interview with the media.
There was no word yet about funeral arrangements.
