Vicious Triple Stabbing Rocks Mayflower; Accused on the Run
A woman remains hospitalized tonight following a case of domestic violence inside her Belize City house. Thirty-one-year-old Nikita Smith was asleep at about five-thirty this morning when her common-law husband stabbed her multiple times and hit her with a cement block. He then turned on his stepdaughter, a twelve-year-old student and when her brother intervened, he too was attacked. Mark Rahburn Senior then fled the house and is yet to be detained. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Around five-thirty this morning, the unthinkable would happen inside the lower flat of this house on Mayflower Street. As the heavy rains continued into the morning, thirty-one-year-old Nikita Smith and her daughter slept here on this bedding beside the couch, while her son was asleep in the backroom. But the blood soaked sheets, cement block and knife on the ground are telltale signs that something went awfully wrong. It is not known what triggered the act of violence, but Smith’s common-law husband, identified as Mark Rhaburn Senior of Hattieville, stabbed her multiple times to the head and body before knocking her unconscious. He then turned to his twelve-year-old stepdaughter and primary school student, Veril Morris, and stabbed her multiples times as well.
Nikita Smith
Voice of: Tori Kelly, Cousin of Stabbing Victims
“I heard my grand aunt, the victim’s mother, yelling for us at our gate and she said unu come, come, come. When I got outside and came to my grand aunt’s yard, she said inside. Ih say Mark stab up everybody in there. When I got into the room, my cousin was lying on the ground with her daughter—weh she and ih daughter sleep—she was lying on the ground with a cement block because apparently he stabbed her in the head and dropped a cement block on her head and she was knocked out.”
Veril Morris
Audrey Bradley, Sister of Stabbing Victim
“I get a call from my son because my son live here with my ma and he tell me come quick, come quick, but he neva say dah what. So I just wake up my boyfriend and I tell ahn let’s go dah my ma, something happen. And so when I get yah, dah soh dehn di tell me that my sister common-law husband weh ih live with downstairs of my ma [house] stab up she and the two kids dehn.”
It was a scream for help from Veril that woke up her brother, Jaheim Morris, who ran to her defense. He too was stabbed to the back by his stepfather.
Jaheim Morris
Voice of: Tori Kelly
“After attacking the mother, the stepfather then started to stab the little girl who is twelve-years-old and he heard his sister scream and he came out the room to see what’s going on and when he came out he saw the stepfather on top of the sister. Unsure to him what was happening, he knew that it was something wrong so he immediately attacked the stepfather when the stepfather stabbed him in the back; that’s when he realized what was happening.”
Smith’s sister, Audrey Bradley says that after the victims stood near the police booth for some time, an ambulance arrived to whisk the mother and two children to the K.H.M.H. While the siblings have been treated and released, Smith remains hospitalized for five stab wounds she sustained.
Audrey Bradley
Audrey Bradley
“When I went to the hospital right, my sister—she and the girl, two of them both get stab ina dehn head. The little girl even get stabbed in their right ear. Even when I get home ya to my ma [house], blood was pouring out of my two ears. And my sister was still unconscious cause she di ask weh happen, weh happen and she noh di feel nothing.”
The family does not know what could have triggered the violent attack on Smith and her children.
Audrey Bradley
“Nobody expect fi get dehn kinda news at dehn hours there. And I noh know weh wrong with he. Something mussi just come over he or come ina ih head fi wah do something like that, knowing the area weh ih deh and weh coulda mi happen to ahn.”
Voice of: Tori Kelly
“He have to be a monster because if you have kids, you noh wah just stab somebody child. I mean you noh have no heart; obviously he noh have no heart.”
According to the family, Rhaburn Senior fled through bushes to the back of the yard and escaped. Although there is a police checkpoint less than a hundred yards away at the intersection of Mayflower and Vernon Streets, a police mobile arrived on the scene shortly after. It is not know if there was a breach of protocol, but more than four hours later and the scene had still not been processed; the weapon and the evidence untouched.
Voice of: Tori Kelly
“There was no police here. They came after and when they came, they looked around. They didn’t render any assistance; they didn’t go after this man, nothing at all. All they did was look around and when the ambulance came, they got into their vehicle and dehn gone. Up to now, they noh come back. We noh know, nobody noh process no scene – nobody noh do nothing. And they left and that was it; that was the last we see of the police until you guys show up. That’s why we decide to call unu because the police dah fi assist and no assistance.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
