Autistic boy dies after accidentally shooting himself

JAMAICA - The entire community of Perth Town was contorted with grief yesterday in the wake of the tragic passing of a well-loved, 11-yearold autistic boy who shot himself while playing with his father’s licenced firearm last Saturday.

The deceased has been identified as Malique Lawman of Bellevue, Perth Town. At Bellevue United Church, which the 11-year-old regularly attended, tears ran freely down the cheeks of Reverend Novlyn Hanson and two church sisters who she sought to comfort. The clergywoman declined an interview, saying she was too overwhelmed to speak with the media. “It sad. It sad,” one of the elderly church sisters muttered. The affection for Malique transcended denomination as Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist church member Elaine Mills, who we ran into on the street, spoke glowingly of the boy. “When I got the news I was in church and after lunchtime we went and visit the mother and we prayed for her.

A distraught family member, Carl Bright, disclosed that about 11:00 am Malique’s father hurried downstairs to retrieve his son before he could reach the gate and head for the road. Before returning upstairs, the father stopped to hang some clothes on the line while the 11-year-old ran back upstairs. Before the father could finish, he heard an explosion coming from his room. “They were upstairs and the little youth came downstairs, go out to the gate and he came down to retrieve him because he is autistic and don’t know really what him doing. So him put him inside and just stop to put some clothes on the line”, Bright told the Jamaica Observer. Both Bright who was also upstairs, in a room separated by a bathroom from where the explosion was heard and the frightened father dashed towards the source of the explosion. (Stabroek News)