Teen stabbed in family dispute dies

Heartbreak has gripped the family of 13-year-old Excelsior High School student Kemelia Paul, who succumbed to her injuries after being stabbed during a family dispute on May 9.

The devastating news was confirmed by the teen's heartbroken mother, Josephine Mitchell, who yesterday told THE STAR that Kemelia passed away. For the mother who watched her child battle for life for more than a month, the pain was almost too much to bear. During a brief phone call with THE STAR, words were scarce, but Mitchell's anguished cries pierced the conversation while, in the background, prayers and choruses seeking strength and comfort for the family could be heard. In a voice note to the news team, she said “Jesus, I can’t say RIP to my daughter.”

Reports are that Kemelia sustained critical injuries when she was stabbed while trying to quell a domestic dispute in Bayshore Park, in the vicinity of Harbour View, St Andrew. According to Mitchell in a previous interview, her daughter, who lived with her father and aunt, was stabbed in the stomach while attempting to separate an altercation involving a cousin and the father of the cousin's child. The alleged attacker, who reportedly had a restraining order against him, went to the home determined to confront his child's mother.

But now Mitchell's grief has deepened as she struggles to come to terms with the loss of her daughter, whom she described as jovial and full of promise, with a bright future ahead of her. In an emotional interview then, the mother, who was frantically running across the compound of the Kingston Public Hospital trying to fill prescriptions and purchase items to keep her daughter comfortable, told THE STAR that her Mother's Day was spent watching her 13-year-old fight for her life.

At the time, she explained that the stab wound had severely damaged her daughter's liver and that doctors were preparing her for three surgeries. 

Despite her painful reality, Mitchell remained hopeful throughout the past month and during checks by THE STAR, she repeatedly said she was trusting in God and holding on to faith that her daughter would recover.

The accused man, identified as 29-year-old Kemar Mitchell, turned himself in to investigators at the Kingston East Police Division on May 14.