Freelance Contributor
A Chaguanas mother says she has forgiven the teenage suspect who is accused of violently stabbing her son to death.
Nicole Lashley lost her son Christian, 15, after he was fatally stabbed at the Chrissy Trace Recreation Ground in Chaguanas on Sunday.
Speaking at her Lashley Street, Connection Drive, Enterprise home yesterday, the grieving mother said nothing down now could bring her son back.
Referring specifically to the parents of her son’s alleged killer, Lashley said, “To the parents of the child who do it, you know, honestly, I forgive that child and I don’t want to hold no malice to that child because God said to be merciful because at the end of the day, me holding malice against the child, he is just a child too and it can’t have two tragedies.
“He deserves a chance at life as well and there is no justice that could bring back my son. There is nothing that could bring (him) back, except in the new world (referring to the resurrection in Christianity), nothing.”
She added, “A lot of people are hateful saying if it was my child (referring to people who would take the route of vengeance), what that solving? It can’t bring him back, he is gone. Young people just have to relax a lil bit, school is to enjoy.”
Lashley said she was also open to accepting an apology from the parents of her son’s alleged killer.
“I hope that God really has mercy on whoever was involved, and just think, have mercy on them. To the mom and dad of that child, sometimes a lil sorry would have helped, it won’t take away nothing, but at least apologise. I forgive you son, I forgive you.”
Recalling the events before Christian was stabbed, Lashley said she was feeling uneasy when she dropped him off at Chrissie Trace to get a haircut. She said she advised Christian to call her because he was threatened last Thursday by another student who pulled a knife for him.
Lashley said Christian was tired of being accosted.
“The only thing he has is a good personality, he makes people smile, he makes children laugh. He was like every other teenager, he is not perfect, he has his lil faults but he is not a thief, he is not a murderer, he is none of the above.”
She said when she got a call that her son had been stabbed, she initially thought it was a prank.
Lashley said when she arrived at the Chaguanas Health Centre, she found out Christian’s liver had been punctured and the doctors were struggling to save him. She said even fellow patients were praying for Christian. She claimed the ambulance took a long time to come from the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex to Chaguanas because there was no stretcher available for the ambulance.
“A few minutes after they told me that he was really critical, it did not look good. Then I hear the doctor saying let his mummy come and give him a kiss. In my heart I said what I was going and give him a kiss for. I went and held his lil hand and I told him mommy loves you and don’t give up on me, you have to fight for we, we work too hard.”
She said after she spoke with Christian, his hand “flickered” and he passed out.
Nicole said her husband Andy Lashley then went with Christian in the ambulance to the EWMSC, where the young man died shortly after.
She said, “A lot of people does have a lot of negative things to say about parents but parents does try they best, nobody is perfect. At the end of the day, my son had a lot of potential.”
She said Christian wanted to be an auto mechanic like his uncle, who also was killed two years ago in Chrissy Terrace. She said his uncle’s death took place when Christian was in Form 1 and he became withdrawn, having also lost his great-grandparents three months prior to the death of his uncle.
“It was a lot for him to deal with and he really tried to cope with it.”
She called on youths to reject anger when it arises.
“These children need to stop being so angry and just take it down.”
She said families relive the pain of death daily.
“To other people, it can be a body, a statistic but to family, it’s that person dying every single day. It really heartbreaking to know that people that he (Christian) trusted, they probably thought it was a joke and it was a game thing, you are only hearing one set of different things, but there is only one truth, it wasn’t a joke, the people that he trusted led him to this.”