Up until the moment Alfred Johnson was visited by a team from the Trelawny Victim Support Unit, the distressed father of murdered teen Oray was bent on avenging his son’s murder then committing suicide.

His son, a 14-year -old Albert Town High student, was hacked to death by a machete-wielding 11-year-old primary school male student, with whom he had a dispute in their deep rural Lowe River district, Monday afternoon.

“Me woulda cut off him (killer) head and go heng. That is the feeling I have. [But] like how this pastor here speak to me, I am not going to do it again. My mind is changed from that,” the distressed 45-year-old farmer remarked in reference to counselling from Reverend Owen Watson, leader of the victim support unit.

Meanwhile, Reverend Watson expressed how fulfilling it was for him and his team to journey from Falmouth to the yam-growing community to offer counselling to the bereaved family.

“One of the first thing that came across my mind when I saw him was revenge, and when I asked him what was he thinking he suggested to me that based on how he is feeling; it is to go and kill somebody for the youngster who killed his son and then hang himself, and by reasoning with him he has decided not to pursue with this mindset,” the Trelawny Victim Support Unit manager said.

“I am very happy that we were able to come because by engaging him on the way forward we have avoided or prevented something serious from taking place.

Tragedy struck the farming community about 3:30 pm on Monday when Oray, who is commonly called “Orane”, was on his way from a grocery shop where he went to pick up items for his mother. A heated argument ended in an exchange of blows between himself and the 11-year-old along the main road in the community.

In an attempt to quell the fight, a female resident reportedly threw water on the boys, but that was not enough to cool the heated temper of the younger boy.

He allegedly left for home and returned with a machete which he used to inflict wounds to Oray.

One of the chops caught the neck, which was reportedly partially severed.

The 14-year-old ran off into a nearby banana field where he collapsed and died.

The 11-year-old then fled the scene, but was later apprehended in bushes and handed over to the Wait-a-Bit police.

Oray’s teary-eyed father told the Jamaica Observer West that he now regrets telling his son not to attend school on Monday because he was needed to assist in transporting marl for the construction of a new family dwelling.

“Mi regret [not sending him to school]. It better him did go a school, [but] he would return from school at that time [of the day when the incident happened] because he is on morning shift,” bemoaned the grief-stricken father.

Area residents, in the meantime, lauded the 14-year-old for his willingness to assist others.

In fact, it was only Sunday that Oray reportedly volunteered to do his own laundry when he felt his mother was too tired to take on a large wash load.

The boy’s mother, Taneisha Smith, who had to be rushed to a medical facility the day following the gruesome murder of her son, was too grief-stricken to speak to our news team on Tuesday when she returned from the doctor.