Schoolboys survive brutal attacks after ‘Champs’ 

Paula Lindsey spent much of last week praising God after her only son survived a knife attack on his way from the National Stadium where he had attended the penultimate day of the 2016 ISSA-GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs).

“I just thank God that the knife didn’t go far,” Lindsey told The Sunday Gleaner as she reflected on the attack that left her son, 18-year-old Khyri Lawrence, a student at Kingston College (KC), nursing several stitches to his abdomen.

Lawrence, who is in upper sixth form pursuing six Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination subjects, successfully sat 11 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate subjects, passing 10 with grade ones and one with a grade two.

The youngster, who wants to become a surgeon, was attacked, beaten and stabbed on Trafalgar Road in New Kingston by men who robbed him of his cellular phone.

According to Lindsey, she went to Champs with her son before they separated with a plan to meet in Half-Way Tree to take a bus home at the end of the day’s events.

Greatest Fear

But hours after the Friday evening events at the stadium, she started worrying as she waited at a bus stop in Half-Way Tree.

For Lindsey, her greatest fear was that Khyri had lost his phone as her calls to his number went unanswered.

Soon after, several strange numbers started calling her phone and she was told by a stranger that her son had been stabbed.

“I don’t even know who called the phone. As I hear them say KPH I just lock down the phone and started to look for a bus to go downtown,” said Lindsay.

The bus took her to the intersection of North and King streets, and from there she “ran and walk” the almost 200 metres to the hospital.

Lindsey arrived at the hospital to find her son in a wheelchair with his right side heavily bandaged. He was released from hospital last Sunday.

“They said it (the knife) didn’t go too far, and when I went there he was already bandaged. But he received stitches and was admitted as they did blood work,” said the mother, adding that she later reported the incident at the New Kingston Police Post.

Stabbed By Robbers

Less than 24 hours after the attack on the KC student, a 14-year-old student of Calabar Primary and Junior High School was also stabbed by robbers as he left the championships.

The Calabar student was still being treated in hospital up to late last week.

“I was told that he is still in the hospital and he is recovering. I am told that they tried to get his cellular phone and that is why they stabbed him. But I have not seen the child as yet,” said Raymond Munroe, principal of Calabar Junior High.

The St Andrew Central Police Division, which is responsible for the area around the National Stadium, has reported no serious incidents around the championships.

“When you are talking about Champs incidents you are talking about incidents involving children; we have zero such incidents,” said Senior Superintendent Millicent Sproul-Thomas, head of the division.

“What I do know is that there was a robbery in Half-Way Tree on Saturday after Champs, and we have that suspect in custody. But that incident had nothing do with Champs or with the children,” added Sproul-Thomas.