The 43-year-old man who allegedly stabbed nine people to death on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, including four of his own children and also his neighbours, in a gruesome crime that shook South American nation Suriname, killed himself in jail, police said on Monday.
The man, identified only by initials D.A., hanged himself to death in a police station cell, reported news agency AFP citing local police. He was reportedly found dead on Monday morning.
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The attacker killed nine people during the night from Saturday, December 27, to Sunday, December 28, around his home which included four adults and five children with a sharp object, said police. A sixth child and an adult were seriously injured and were transported to the hospital, it added.
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Among the victims were four of the accused’s own children aged five to 15 and reportedly their grandparents and another child. Police chief Melvin Pinas said that the man appeared to be suffering from mental health issues.
The local media reported that the man stabbed his 11-year-old daughter some 44 times in the kitchen of their home following an argument with his wife over a phone call. During the rampage, the man was shot in the legs while authorities tried to arrest him, after which he was hospitalised before being taken to a police cell on Sunday evening, said police.
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According to the country’s Justice and Police Minister Harish Monorath, the man killed himself in the moment when no one was present around him before which, he was being monitored closely.
Providing more details on how the attack unfolded, the minister said, “As far as we know it began at the home. Two children managed to get out,” and called their grandmother across the street, according to the AFP report.
“The grandmother and grandfather came to help, with deadly consequences for them,” he added.
Responding to the gruesome killings, Suriname’s President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons said they were “faced with the harsh reality that there is another side to the world.”
“A father who takes the lives of his own children and, in the process, kills his neighbors as well. I wish all those in mourning much strength, courage, and comfort in this unimaginably difficult time,” she wrote in a post on Facebook.
(With inputs from AFP)