Man kills self after chopping woman

Victim warded in serious condition

Published: Thursday, December 10, 2015 

​ An Arima street vendor who had threatened to kill his estranged lover and then himself, committed suicide on Tuesday after chopping the woman, who survived the attack. The incident took place around 8 pm, police said, after the man, Narine Singh, of Matura, attacked Marilyn Gallan, 56, as she walked along Pro Queen Street in the heart of the eastern borough, metres away from the police station.

Police said after chopping the woman Singh ran west along Farfan Street and collapsed on Woodford Street where he died. Police said the woman was chopped four times and remains warded in a serious condition at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.

An employee of Circle Square Recreational Pub, where Singh was once employed, said yesterday Singh had threatened to kill the woman and then himself in the past. She said the man, who she described as “jolly and a little ignorant,” had a temper, was warned against such violent threats and would calm down. She said on two previous occasions Singh attempted to take his life, once by ingesting poison and another by jumping off a building.

Another employee said Singh met Gallan at the bar and the two began a relationship which lasted two years. “We talk to him about it, other people talk to him but we didn’t think he would do it but it wasn’t a surprise per se,” the woman interrupted, adding that the couple had broken up about two months ago. She said Gallan, who is married, ended the relationship because of Singh’s erratic behaviour.
Another street vendor, who asked not to be identified, said after seeing Singh chop Gallan he and other men chased after him. While running behind Singh they saw him pelt away the cutlass. When he was confronted the men began beating Singh who denied chopping the woman. During that struggle, police said, Singh drank poison and collapsed.

“He was just walking down the road with his bag and then start to pelt chop. It’s when we see it we intervene. I used to see them talking normal,” the vendor said. A passerby who saw a stack of cash in Singh’s pocket took it and left, one eyewitness said.

Other street vendors said Singh was gambling earlier in the day and believed he had the entire attack planned. The chopping took place just outside a shoe shop as Gallan made her way to the San Rafael taxi stand on her way home.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2015-12-10/man-kills-self-after-chopping-woman

Chopped woman warded at Hospital

By Darcel Choy Thursday, December 10 2015

BELIEVING her to be dead, after he chopped her repeatedly, Narine Singh drank a poisonous substance, collapsed on the pavement near Woodford Street in Arima and died on Tuesday night. His victim, Marilyn Gallan, 56, survived his assault and remains warded in serious but stable condition at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Mt Hope.

According to police reports, Gallan of San Rafael was walking along Farfan Street in Arima at about 7.30 pm when Singh ran up to her with a cutlass in hand and chopped her four times. As she fell to the ground, her blood staining the road, Singh threw away the cutlass and walked away while drinking a poisonous substance from a bottle. A few minutes later, he collapsed near a bakery on Woodford Street and died.

Gallan was taken to the Arima Health Facility and later transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope, where she underwent emergency surgery and is now warded. Newsday visited the area where the incident occurred and spoke to several people who said they were not surprised by what happened as Singh had expressed his intentions to kill Gallan and himself before.

One woman who did not want to give her name disclosed that Singh and Gallan were in a relationship but Gallan ended it after a “violent incident” occurred two months ago. The woman said Singh begged Gallan to resume the relationship promising he would behave himself. But she refused and that upset him a great deal.

She said when Singh expressed his intention to commit murder and then take his own life, many people tried to talk him out of it.

She said she did not know him very well but from seeing him around he appeared to be a “jolly” person. Singh who was originally from Matura was a costume jewelry vendor along Queen Street, Arima. One man, who claimed he witnessed the entire incident, said that after Singh attacked Gallan, he (the eyewitness) and a few other men chased and hit him some lashes.

“But he was done drinking something from a Hennessy bottle.

I told the fellars not to hit him again. Let the police reach and take him to the station. But then he started to froth from the mouth.

“I told them whatever he take there it look like is poison. So we called the police. I don’t know why he do that. He kill himself over a woman? Steups. Boy, I would have moved on...go in my bed and let natural causes take me,” the man said.

One man who knew Singh very well disclosed that he attempted suicide two times before. “He jumped off a building the first time and survived and the second time, he drank poison.

“This time he succeded though,” the man said. Arima Mayor George Hadeed, who yesterday was speaking to businessmen near to where the incident occurred expressed concern about what happened, noting that it was only on Saturday, the Arima Borough Corporation held a domestic violence event in Arima.


Source: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,221073.html

Looking for a Cure to Violence

Published on Nov 30, 2015, 6:50 pm AST

School fights, child abuse, domestic violence and police brutality dominate the news. They are often viewed as discrete issues demanding separate solutions, when they are instead common threads weaving into the fabric that is our culture of violence.

As a teenager, I considered the border between corporal punishment and child abuse as shaped by ensuring the child also understood you loved him/her; understood “licks” was a form of discipline; was never beaten in anger; and was never hurt “too much”. While these parameters may make sense to a society fully sold into the licks doctrine, they are not firmly enshrined in law.

The Children's Act affirms the legality of “reasonable” corporal punishment without distinguishing it from “assault”.

With the line between “just enough licks” and “too much” still legally blurry, ask yourself – if every time you beat your child were filmed, would you be exonerated in the court of public opinion or otherwise?

Some look to escalating school violence and call the removal of corporal punishment as its cause. I'm not so sure.

School violence always existed; social media has simply made it more visible. Any increase may be more appropriately ascribed to students acclimatising to increasing violence in the wider society, as evidenced by soaring crime.

I further suggest children who fight in schools fight not because teachers can't beat them, but because parents already do.

Homes where licks is the main form of discipline will not automatically produce violent individuals, but it may shape minds which see violence as an important component of solutions to problems.
Some percentage of homes will always be “broken”, add licks to mix and society will invariably produce more violent individuals.

So, when confronted by problems, how else could students respond but with fists and feet? And then, if a man can beat his child, why can't he beat his wife? And if he can beat a small, defenceless person, surely a policeman can beat a suspected criminal.

Some policemen, incapable of proper investigative work, attempt to beat suspects into confession. This perfectly encapsulates our problem.

There are ways to deal with undisciplined children other than beatings, but much like some policemen, we don't know how to effect the alternatives, so we default to the method we know.
Our thinking must shift from punitive to rehabilitative. Punishment forces us do right using fear of the physical, mental or financial pain associated with getting caught. Rehabilitation imparts the understanding of why doing right is better and, importantly, provide tools to make that choice easier.
I am not saying punishment has no place in society – only that its place in ours is far too significant, and that the violent component of punishment is central when it should be marginal.
I am also not trying to take your belt away – only asking that you properly consider other options before resorting to it.

Discipline without licks will require more time, effort and creativity, but there are many books and websites dedicated to such – educate yourself. More knowledge is always better than less.
Some rail against this thinking, but the evidence in progressive countries supports me. Some say our culture is different, but do we know this to be a fact?

Did licks instil the discipline apparent in our most successful and least violent citizens? I believe licks more likely shaped our prison population, but absent the research, my proposition is as good as yours.
Still, I agree that our culture is “different”. It is mired in violence. It is flawed. It needs an overhaul. Because violence among and against children, by domestic partners and police will not be solved by what our culture dictates – more violence.

Taryn Salazar

Source: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20151130/letters/looking-for-a-cure-to-violence