Carlingford boy, 5, stabbed to death
THE five-year-old boy tragically killed in a Sydney stabbing wanted his very own car “when he was bigger,” his grieving grandmother has said. The child was stabbed to death before she desperately attempted to save him.
Hills Shire
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A GRANDMOTHER has been hailed a hero trying desperately to save her five-year-old grandson after he was stabbed by a relative in a domestic dispute at Carlingford.
Police said the child was left with serious stab wounds about 7am and his distraught grandmother, aged in her 60s, fled with the child to nearby Moseley St to raise the alarm.
She realised the extent of his injuries and called police and emergency services to the home.
In a Facebook post, the grandmother said the boy “just loves to pretend he is driving AMG.”
“He says he wants one when he is bigger,” she wrote last February.
“Very impressed with red lights on the inside of the doors.”
Paramedics performed CPR and the boy was rushed by police escort to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in a critical condition but died about an hour later.
A 36-year-old Carlingford man was arrested nearby and taken to Castle Hill Police Station and is currently being questioned. Charges are expected to be laid.
At a police press conference this morning, NSW Police Superintendent Rob Critchlow described the grandmother’s actions as heroic.
“She’s behaved in a heroic and caring manner,” he told the media.
“She’s been presented with something terrible and done her best to get the young boy to safety and to get him treatment.
“Sadly, despite her best efforts, there was nothing more she could have done.”
Supt Critchlow said it was a “very difficult” and “heartbreaking” situation that was going to affect the community.
“They are going to suffer badly from this,” Supt Critchlow said.
“As a community we’re poorer because we’ve lost a young man today.”
Supt Critchlow the grandmother ran to “seek assistance in the best way she could” and she did what “every grandmother would do”.
He said it seemed she realised that he was “so unwell” he needed expert attention.
He said from what police could tell there was only the boy, the man who has been arrested and the grandmother in the house.
His wounds were so severe he died at 8am at the hospital, he said.
“Despite the amazing and gallant efforts by health staff they were not able to save him,” he said.
“It’s been a horrible and brutal crime against a defenceless boy.
“Early indications are the boy was stabbed in an address in Carlingford then taken for safety by another relative and that’s when police were called.”
Paramedics have treated the grandmother for shock.
He said there was a team of expert investigators including the homicide squad involved.
The child’s mother, who was not at the home when the attack happened, is being supported by medical professionals at the hospital where her son died. Police say they have the weapon used on the boy.
“It was a sharp weapon — we believe a knife,” Supt Critchlow said. Two crime scenes have been set up, at the home on Paul Place and nearby Moseley Street.
The man is expected to be charged, Supt Critchlow said.
Family friends and neighbours Natalie and Hank Lewin said it was shocking.
“It’s shocking I couldn’t imagine life without my little guy,” Mr Lewin said. “He was a sweet little boy. He was alive, intelligent enough, bold and brave, outgoing and a little sweet kid.”
Ms Lewin questioned how she was going to tell her child.
“I’m still shaking and we are going to get me kid and how do you tell your kid?” she asked.
Mr Lewin said the relationship between father and son was “doting”.
“He cared for that boy,” Mr Lewin said. “He’d run to his dad. We were mates. He was so easy going a nice guy. I had a couple of beers with him. We’d talk about footy, cars. He (the father) was a good bloke. He worked pretty hard. His health recently took a hit, he spent some time in the hospital.”
Ms Lewin said: “They’re going through a tough time because only she’s working.
‘He is the sweetest boy. Very smart, outgoing. He’d say hello. He’s so little he’s five years old but he looked 3 or 4. The father was a mechanic he worked with his dad.”
A neighbour who lives in the same street where the stabbing happened, James Wynne, said it was a quiet street and he didn’t know anything or hear anything.
“It’s absolutely devastating what’s happened to the child,” he said.
“I’ve lived here for 40 years, they’re renters, so many people are coming and going now.”
A neighbour, Peter Smith, who lives in an adjacent street said: “My son left for work at 6am. And at 8.20 he was texting us and told us something’s happening.”
A man Hector Wong who is was a parent of a child at a child care centre in Moseley St where the grandmother rushed with the boy said he had never seen anything like it in the area.
“I was dropping my kids off and the police told me ‘stop’.”
A second crime scene has been established at a nearby street with police cordoning off the road.
Inquiries are continuing.
