JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Baby’s grandmother on fatal attack: Suspect ‘just fly out with a blade’

by

1386 days ago
20210920

Sascha Wil­son

“These men are de­mon. They don’t have no God in them,” lament­ed the grand­moth­er of 15-month-old Sari­ah Williams, who was fa­tal­ly chopped by a rel­a­tive dur­ing a do­mes­tic dis­pute on Sun­day night.

Bleed­ing pro­fuse­ly from a chop wound to her head, ba­by Sari­ah died min­utes lat­er while un­der­go­ing emer­gency treat­ment at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

“I blame my­self be­cause I should ah put a stop to this and stop for­giv­ing and for­giv­ing. If I put a stop, my grand­child would ah be alive,” said grand­moth­er Michelle Williams, 50, dur­ing an in­ter­view at her Sion Dri­ve, Tar­o­dale, Ste Madeleine, home yes­ter­day.

Blood­stains were still vis­i­ble in the gallery of the house where the ba­by was chopped, as well as on the steps lead­ing to the yard and road.

Point­ing to scars on her body, Williams, a moth­er of sev­en, spoke about en­dur­ing 24 years of abuse by the rel­a­tive.

She had planned to go to the mag­is­trates’ court yes­ter­day and ap­ply for a pro­tec­tion or­der, but tragedy struck on Sun­day night.

Williams, a se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer, re­called that she had fin­ished work­ing a 6 am to 6 pm shift and met Sari­ah’s moth­er, Niki­ta, and her eight chil­dren at her home.

Niki­ta had cur­ry-cue ear­li­er that day to raise funds to pur­chase tablet de­vices and school sup­plies for her chil­dren– the el­dest is 14 years old.

Know­ing that her daugh­ter would have been in the heat cook­ing all day, she of­fered to wash the wares be­cause she was con­cerned that her daugh­ter could get a stroke.

How­ev­er, Williams said the rel­a­tive start­ed curs­ing her and com­plain­ing that she was al­low­ing her chil­dren to use her.

Williams and her daugh­ter then sat down in the gallery with Sari­ah on Williams’ lap. But, as the rel­a­tive con­tin­ued rant­i­ng, her daugh­ter told him to stop quar­relling and go to bed.

How­ev­er, Williams said he went in­side and then came back out with a speed.

“He just fly out with a blade. I ent even see when he fly out through the draw­ing-room and in­to the gallery. He just start to chop the ba­by. She get chop in her head and blood start to flow and she was on­ly black­ing out,” she said.

She said her daugh­ter grabbed Sari­ah and dove to the ground try­ing to shield her (Sari­ah) with her body. The sus­pect, she said, just kept fir­ing chops.

“He keep com­ing so I had to go over them and brakes and that’s how I get my two fin­gers chop and when he com­ing again, I brakes with my right hand,” she said.

By this time, rel­a­tives and neigh­bours were run­ning up the steps of their home to their res­cue.

Williams said the rel­a­tive ran in­to a room and locked the door un­til the po­lice ar­rived.

Re­call­ing how she rushed out of the house with her bleed­ing grand­daugh­ter, she said, “The child was on­ly black­ing out. The child could not even cry be­cause blood was on­ly flow­ing from she head.”

A neigh­bour took the ba­by and her moth­er to the hos­pi­tal and on the way, they flagged down a pass­ing po­lice ve­hi­cle and told them what tran­spired.

When the po­lice got there and were es­cort­ing the sus­pect to the po­lice ve­hi­cle, Williams said rel­a­tives and friends at­tacked him, forc­ing the po­lice to use pep­per spray to keep them at bay.

She re­called that years ago, she had made a re­port and took out a re­strain­ing or­der but then she for­gave him.

How­ev­er, Williams said the vi­o­lence did not stop.

Williams added, “He bite off meh hand some years. He stab me here (show­ing a scar on her shoul­der). I for­give he be­cause when you go­ing to church they tell you to for­give them but they don’t change.”

She con­tin­ued, “Is slap down. He kick me with boots, knock me out. He throws pitch oil on me. He throw thin­ners on my daugh­ter. He try to light me on fire. All these things I go­ing through but you know I had a kind of fear be­cause he have a kind of bad mind.”

Williams be­lieves that he was plan­ning the at­tack be­cause over the last week, he had threat­ened to kill her and her chil­dren and hours be­fore the dead­ly at­tack, he al­so sent her a pic­ture of him­self hold­ing a cut­lass.

Re­gret­ting that she did not seek help soon­er, she urged oth­er women who are be­ing abused to go to the po­lice.

“As you hear a man abus­ing you, go to the po­lice sta­tion. You will get coun­selling, talk the truth, tell them every­thing, don’t be like me, I was a cow­ard,” she said.

De­scrib­ing her grand­daugh­ter as a lov­ing child, she said Sari­ah loved to eat, laugh and run.

“She was full of love, a beau­ti­ful child,” she added.

Williams’ moth­er Mer­le Williams said she had begged her daugh­ter to go to the po­lice.

“I told her I don’t have no mon­ey for fu­ner­al,” Mer­le lament­ed.

An au­top­sy is ex­pect­ed to be done lat­er this week at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre pend­ing a COVID-19 test.

Mean­while, the sus­pect, who was born in Guyana but came to came to this coun­try as a ba­by, re­mains in po­lice cus­tody.

Of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

KERWIN PIERRE

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

KERWIN PIERRE

Ringmasters of the Road: Crowds flock to Tribe’s circus-themed band launch

8 hours ago
Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Scotiabank Foundation, United Way donate steelpans

8 hours ago
The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

Jaggasar returns as National Parang president

Yesterday
Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Jamaican Maroons celebrate, question land rights

Yesterday