Child injured by stone; aunt arrested
FOUR days after a four-year-old girl was fatally shot during a family feud in Freeman’s Hall, Trelawny, news has emerged of another child now hospitalised after being injured during a family dispute in Malcolm Heights, Hanover.
The Jamaica Observer has received a report that two-year-old Akeira Kerr is now a patient in the Cornwall Regional Hospital after she was hit in the head by a stone allegedly flung by one of her aunts.
According to the report, Akeria suffered a fractured skull and underwent surgery after she was hit by an angry aunt during the dispute.
Akeria’s mother, Cavell Spence, told the Observer that it was part of her routine to leave the child with her grandmother Genevieve Gordon or her father Iamiruu Kerr, while she went to work.
But there was a change last Thursday when the child’s father and his sister, whose name has not been released by the police, were involved in an argument.
“I reached work and I got a call that the aunt came back into the yard and started to throw stones. When she was told to desist, she said that she did not care about any child,” alleged Spence.
“First she threw a stone and it did not hit them, but when Iamiruu got up while feeding Akeira, she threw another stone and burst Akeira’s head,” added Spence as she claimed that the aunt uttered expletives after she was told that she had hit Akeria and went to lock up in her room.
Spence told the Observer that she was in disbelief even though the twoyear-old is recovering well in hospital.
“I am trying to be calm about the situation until Akeira is alright. I feel so bad …I am so lost for words. Every time someone says something to me, I am not sure of what to say. It is real but sometimes I feel as if I am dreaming. I cannot imagine my baby in a hospital bed because of her aunt — her own blood,” said Spence.
Head of the Hanover Police Division Superintendent Sharon Beeput confirmed that the aunt had been arrested and charged for unlawful wounding and will be be taken before the courts shortly.