15-month-old chopped to death amid family conflict

Trinidad and Tobago: A shocking and heartbreaking incident has been reported in Trinidad and Tobago where a 15 month-old baby girl got hit in the head with a cutlass during a family argument and later died on Sunday night.

The Police authorities are investigating the case. The incident took place in Taradale, Ste Madeleine, southwest of here.

According to the authorities, in the family, a 68-year-old man was having an argument with a 50-year-old woman(who was holding the baby), while he moved ahead with the intention to chop the lady and swung the cutlass, it got stuck on the head of the baby girl, leading injuries on her right side of forehead and face.

The baby, who has been identified as Sarah Williams, was immediately taken to the San Fernando General Hospital, where she was declared dead. The Doctor stated that the injury on the toddler’s face headed to the skull fracture, while it is being expected that the postmortem of the child will take place, pending a COVID-19 test.

The Police authorities have stated that the 68-year-old man is cooperating and assisting them in the investigation.

In addition to this, according to the report of – Insight Crime’s 2020 Homicide Round-Up, Trinidad and Tobago stands at the fourth position among the other nations of the Caribbean region with a homicide rate of 28.2 per 100,000 people. Jamaica was placed first in the report with a homicide rate of 46.5 per 100,000 individuals.

This increase in the crime rate is a threat to the tourism sector and the development of the Caribbean nation leading to affect the GDP. People will have a fear in travelling to these nations. Not only this, but the higher crime rate also has a massive impact on the private sector.

In comparison to the LAC region, the Caribbean region is having the highest levels of crime-related expenditure by governments.