Eleven-Year-Old Victim of Knife Fight [with a Jehovah's Witness boy] Appears in Court

06/17/2002
7 News Extra

It happened last Thursday, the last day of the school year. Two boys squared off on the school playground. There are conflicting versions of who started the fight. But no doubt about who got the worst of it.

Eleven-year-old Augustin Maures lifts a protective veil to show us the more than 100 stitches doctors needed to close two slash wounds to his face.

The Lawrence boy suffered the slash wounds and two stab wounds to the back when he got into a fight with an eleven-year-old classmate on this playground behind the Oliver School.

Augustin Maures, slashing victim
"I went up to a kid, I asked him, ‘Why did you hit my friend?’ I turn around for a second, and he pulls out the blade and cuts me."

The other eleven-year-old who now faces criminal charges arrived at court, his father shielding his face from our camera. The suspect's family says he was the victim, targeted for ridicule because he's a Jehovah's Witness. The boy, who's name is being withheld because he's a juvenile, claims he panicked and pulled the knife his mother bought him for family fishing trips in self defense. The mother of the wounded boy has a different perspective

Maira Maures, Victim's Mother
"I saw my son with his face like that, I was very shocked. I can’t believe an eleven-year-old would carry a knife."

Plastic surgeons at New England Medical Center in Boston pieced together Augustin Maures' face, hoping to prevent permanent facial scars. While seriously wounded, the boy is lucky alive

Mirka Maures, Victim's Aunt
"I understand kids fight, but bringing a knife into school and using it on someone else, four times- not once – four times - it’s just a little too much."

Mike Macklin, Reporter
"What should happen to the other eleven-year-old?"

Mirka Maures
"I think he should be committed until he is eighteen, and then probably even longer. He’s a menace to society."

The accused attacker pleaded not guilty to a juvenile charge of assault and battery. A judge ordered him to stay home in the custody of his parents. A hearing has been scheduled to determine whether the boy poses a danger and should be detained.