Quick action by mother saves son from knife-wielding man

Quick action by mother saves son from knife-wielding man

KANGAR - Quick action by a housewife from Kampung Bunga Mas Timur, Simpang Empat, here had spared her 11-year-old son from a life threatening situation when he was attacked by a knife-wielding mentally unsound neighbour.

Relating the horrific incident on Friday afternoon, Rosleena Abd Karim, 38, said she was washing dishes when she heard her son's frantic shouts for help from their neighbour's home located several doors away.

The mother of six dashed out from the kitchen and was shocked to see the suspect holding her third child with a knife on his hand.

Despite developing a cold feet, Rosleena's motherly instinct had pushed her to approach the suspect, who lives several doors away and tried to calm him down.

"I was extremely scared but I knew that if I did not act fast, my son's life would be in grave danger.

"So I cautiously asked him what he had done to my son as I saw bloods on my son's shirt and suddenly the man released my boy before running back into his home and locked the door," she said.

Rosleena immediately took her son home before she and her husband Ramli Ab Rahman, 44, rushed the boy to the Simpang Empat Health Clinic.

The boy was transferred to the Tunku Fauziah hospital where he was warded for stab wounds on his right shoulder and was discharged on Saturday.

Roslena said her family was in the dark on the reason for the man to attack his son as they had no problem with the suspect's family, who was also the landlord of the house they were renting.

"I would never expect such a thing to happen because he (the suspect) has no problem with my family," she said when met yesterday.

In the 1pm incident, her son, a pupil of Sekolah Kebangsaan Simpang Empat had stopped by at the suspect's house to fetch the man's son to go to a nearby mosque to perform Friday prayers.

However, when the boy knocked on the door, the suspect opened the door with a knife in his hand and started attacking the victim.

Meanwhile, Kangar district police chief Superintendent Abdul Rahman Mohd Noordin said police had picked up the suspect at his home 30 minutes after the incident.

He said police had seized a knife believed to be used during the incident and were probing the motive behind the attack.

"What we know now, the 35-year-old suspect is said to be suffering from a mental illness," he said.

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