Andrea Hancock says he understands that people are angry with her daughter, she is also angry, but says that the 19 -year -old is also very bad and warned the police, social workers, doctors, shelter workers, therapists, even the neighbors, that her daughter was dangerous.
“I said: ‘Someone is going to hurt … she is going to die or someone will die,” he said this week during an exclusive interview at his home in Greenfield, NS, a rural community about 130 kilometers west west of Halifax.
She said her daughter, Elliott Chorny, has fought with a mental illness since she was a girl. Chorny handled his condition with medications and therapy when he was younger, but his health decreased while dealing with physical health problems, relentless intimidation, and sometimes violent, and, ultimately, the death of his biological father last year, with whom he had only established a recent contact.
Chorny has been accused of attempted murder and possession of a dangerous weapon for public peace, after a A six -year -old boy was found suffering multiple knife wounds in the Halifax center on Sunday afternoon In an apparent random attack. Police say Chorny wore a knife.
The child, whose identity is protected by a prohibition of publication ordered by the Court due to his age, was taken to the IWK Health Center in Halifax, the Children’s Hospital in the region, with injuries that threaten life. On Tuesday, the police said their condition had been improved to the stable, but remained in the hospital on Thursday.
CBC News has not been able to contact their parents. Police say that one of them was essential to ensure that Chorny remained on the scene.
Hancock, 45, said his heart is with the child, and feels the responsibility of sharing the history of his family, not to put excuses but to try to prevent this violence from happening again.
“I need things to change and I need the government to listen to this and I need health services to listen to this. I need everyone to listen to this,” he said.
Diagnosed with TOC at 7
Hancock said Chorny was a pleasant girl who loved to learn, but when he was seven years old, she began to show aggression and throwing tantrums. He was diagnosed with an obsessive compulsive disorder.
Even at that early age, he restricted what he was eating because he feared heart attacks after learning about health. Similarly, when he learned of the environment, finding ways to protect the earth weighed on it, his mother said.
In high school, bullying began.
Around that time, Chorny also contracted Lyme’s disease, a serious illness caused by the sting of an infected black tick. Hancock said his daughter’s case was “extreme” and led to multiple surgeries.
As a result, he said, Chorny’s mental health decreased and his TOC “exploded”, landing at the Garron Center for the mental health of children and adolescents, an acute hospital care unit at the IWK Health Center.
Last year, autism was also diagnosed after being on a waiting list for evaluation for more than a decade.
There are two Autism Evaluation List in Nueva Scotia, one for children before entering school and another for children once the school has started. The waiting list fluctuates for a variety of reasons, but there are currently 501 children in the school age evaluation list, with an average waiting time from 390 to 445 days.
On his 18th birthday, in June 2024, Chorny began to refuse to take his medicine. His mother worried him the safety of his other younger girl.
Social workers considered that Chorny Insecure lived at home, and she began to bounce refuge for refuge, paranoid that she could not stay in a place too long or “would develop corrosive negative energy,” said her mother.
Previous assault charge
A month before the attack against the child, Hancock, who maintained regular contact with Chorny, said a passerby found his daughter stopped on a bridge over the train tracks, threatening to jump.
“The police took her to the hospital to obtain psychiatric care, and they thought it was not a danger to itself and others,” said Hancock. “And this is the second time they took her out of a bridge.”
Hancock said the police told him that he resulted in an altercation with a doctor because Chorny didn’t want to be released, he wanted help, but not medications.
Judicial documents show that she was accused of assault.
Hancock said the QEII Health Sciences Center in Halifax that day.
“I said: ‘You simply let out a very dangerous person on the street,” he said. “They said: ‘I’m going to be hanging with you now and’ I can’t discuss this. ‘”
Comments online days before the child’s stabbing
In an online forum, Chorny published many comments about self -harm. He also shared his birth certificate there to confirm his identity, which his mother has verified for CBC News.
Five days before the alleged attack, she wrote: “I apologize in advance if I live and do something horrible.”
New Health Scotia said he cannot discuss specific cases, citing privacy concerns and, in this case, an ongoing criminal investigation.
In a statement, a spokesman said that the decision to admit or discharges a patient with suicidal ideation is based on multiple factors that the treating team evaluates.
“These may include things such as a history of previous ideation or attempts, protection factors (family), presence of acute stressors, ability to communicate a security plan and many others,” said the statement.
In general, Dr. Sabina Abidi, associate head of psychiatry at the IWK, says that in some cases unnecessary admission to the hospital can also cause more damage.
“Without a doubt, if we can provide attention to a young person in their communities and in their homes, that leads to the best results,” he said.
New Scotland Health also points out that in the vast majority of cases, people living with mental illnesses never resort to violence.
Hancock said the province needs a residential program, in which people suffering from mental illnesses can access continuous welfare care, without having to be in crisis.
Intensive Services for Adolescents IWK It provides day care and hospitalization for young people with serious mental health problems that need intensive treatment but do not require emergency care of acute hospitalization.
Hancock said his daughter tried that program twice, but that she required more attention than she could provide. On one occasion, he had to leave the program after pouring tea deliberately and being taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Hancock said that when his daughter was more stable, they wanted to try again, but by then there was a waiting list.
Premier ‘dropped the ball’
The night the child was attacked, New Premier Scotland Tim Houston published on social networksexpressing his “outrage and sadness” and said that the person who did this should “stay locked behind bars.”
Two days later, a journalist asked him if he regretted that statement now that there are reasons to believe that mental illness may have been a factor. He replied: “Anyone who represents that danger to others that could happen, that person should not simply walk through society.”
Hancock, who said Houston “has dropped the ball” when it comes to mental health, he said he could not agree with that feeling.
“How do you see that? Where are we going? Why could we not find a place before?” She said.
Archie Kaiser, a law professor at the University of Dalhouseie with a cross appointment in the department of Psychiatry, said she is “very worried” about Prime Minister’s comments.
He said that as head of the Executive Council, the Prime Minister “should not say anything that can presuppose any of the facts that may erode the right of the person to be treated with dignity and respect for their human rights and that attacks the presumption of innocence in the criminal justice system.”
Chorny has consented to remain in custody until March 13, when he will return to the Court to appear.
The crown has not requested a psychiatric evaluation.
Hancock said he knows that his daughter is accused of “a very atrocious act” and that there must be consequences, but he hopes that he also includes that she gets the help she needs.
