A 9-year-old boy tried to commit suicide by hanging himself with a shoelace inside of his Bronx apartment Monday because he was scolded for not wanting to share his candy with his 6-year-old sister, police sources told The Post.
Jayden Chambers was discovered by his mother, 31, hanging from a bunk bed by a white shoelace in the family’s living room on Walton Avenue at 3:21 pm, police sources said. The mother had punished him earlier for not wanting to share his candy with his little sister, which made him seriously upset, sources said.
Her other children had went to the bodega to get tissues and juice and were outside of the apartment when their mother discovered their brother inside hanging and unconscious. The other children rushed to their next door neighbor for help.
“I came outside into the hallway and I could hear [their] mother screaming hysterically… She swung the door open and brought me to the living room where her son was lying on his back. There was blood oozing out of his nose and mouth. His neck was swollen and purple and I thought to myself no, no, no, he can’t die,” Lariel Nieves, 27, told The Post.
Nieves had picked up some CPR over the years and used his fingers to clear the boy’s air passage and give him mouth-to-mouth.
“After a few seconds he coughed up some blood but he still wasn’t responsive,” Nieves said.
The boy’s mom, Toni Davis, 31, praised Nieves.
“Lariel is a hero. He saved my son, absolutely,” she told The Post.
“I believe that my son would not be here today if it were not for Lariel Nieves.”
Davis said the chain of events that led to her son’s suicide bid began with a dispute over lollipops.
“Every once in a while he lashes out and misbehaves,” she said. “I bought him some fruit-flavored lollipops and he did not want to share with his sister.”
She said little Jayden dreams of being a firefighter.
“I feel like he has gotten a second chance at life.”
Additional reporting by Gabrielle Fonrouge