Killing children - The ultimate punishment

Mel Cooke, Sunday Gleaner Writer

WHILE THE children killed in the multiple murder-suicide involving Corporal Wayne Llewellyn and retired police sergeant, Osbourne Whitton, earlier this month have come under intense media focus, the frequency of children killing themselves has also raised alarms.

Llewellyn killed 16-year-old Jorjhan Flynn and three adults in Three Hills, St Mary, on April 7, while 12-year-old Keinon Shaw was among Whitton's three victims in Williamsfield, Manchester, on April 18.

However, on April 10, 14-year-old Shaquilia Calane hanged herself in Norwood, St James, after an altercation with her mother, and only two days before, 14-year-old Annalise Arthurs also committed suicide. On March 30, 15-year-old Godfrey Stewart High student Tia Murray hanged herself in Westmoreland.

Consultant clinical psychologist Dr Karen Richards, pointing out that she was speaking in general terms as she had not been involved in the cases, says that with homicide-suicides, "there is a tremendous amount of anger, fuelled by jealousy and by ego - 'If I can't have you, nobody else will'. And also there is a sense of property - 'You are mine and my life is not worth living without you'. There is this sense of ownership".

Struggling with hurt

With men being notoriously unwilling to show emotional hurt, Richards said, "Because of the stoicism of men, sometimes women do not see the level of hurt they are inflicting on men."

She points out that "there is confusion between being hurt and being angry. Men are less likely to say 'You hurt my feelings when you said that'. Instead, there is a backhander across the face, or a black eye".

And at the ultimate point of murder-suicide, Richards said, "Hurting the children - that is the ultimate act of revenge, [saying] 'I am going to take away what you love'."

She says, though, that killing the child can be the person's way of saying, "I can't see any way this child can survive in this cruel world without me".

"This is very irrational as children lose their parents all the time and grow up to be productive members of society," Richards said.

A rare case in Jamaica of a mother killing her children and then herself took place in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, in November 2007, when 41-year-old Carol Waldron killed her daughters, 14-year-old Kadijah and three-month-old Ashley, by injecting them with potassium chloride before killing herself.

Extending the murder to the relatives of the primary target, Richards said, is the killer saying: "You are all a part of this thing. You knew or were complicit."

In March 2005, 32-year-old Nicholas Williams killed 15-year-old Iskeka Clarke in Olympic Gardens, St Andrew, after accusing her of being unfaithful to him. He then killed himself after firing shots at two other persons living in the tenement yard where the incident took place.

Last July in New York, United States, Leisha Jones killed her four children and herself, setting fire to the apartment in which they lived. Initially, investigators considered if 14-year-old C.J. Jones, a Jamaican boy, could have committed the murder-suicide.

There is no escaping the police presence in this month's multiple murder-suicide cases. Richards points out that they are exposed to a tremendous number of traumatic events in the course of duty. "They are much more likely to come in contact with death, violence, high levels of injury, and distressed relatives, which can be very hard to witness," Richards said, giving the example of a woman picking up her dead child and screaming.

As first responders, the police are called in for anything from a fire to a stabbing, a shooting or car accident, among other traumatic events. "It is highly stressful. You get a numbing effect," Richards said.

Dangerous cocktail

Plus, she pointed out: "It is not easy for [police officers] to come forward and say 'I need help'. Officers do not want to look as if they can't manage the job. Their mortgage, their pension depend on it. And added to that is the firearm. They have a cocktail that is not good."

So far, Richards has spent most of her working life in England and has been in Jamaica for four years. She is surprised at the high number of young people she has encountered "who engage in self-harming behaviour and have suicidal ideation". This is in the 13- to 25-year-old age group.

And while she has not had a man tell her that he had thoughts of murder-suicide, Richards said, "I have had men say their level of anger against their spouse is so high they fear they might kill her." She has also had women tell her they fear their spouses might kill them.

She advises parents to keep the lines of communication with their children open, to know their friends at school, and "don't always presume a child will perceive a thing the way you perceive it. Always help a child see problems in proportion and have them learn problem-solving skills early," Richards said.