Her daughter is accused of stabbing a 6-year-old. She says she warned officials
For years, Andrea Hancock says she tried to get help for her eldest child
Andrea Hancock says she understands that people are angry with her daughter — she's angry too — but she says the 19-year-old is also severely unwell, and she warned police, social workers, doctors, shelter workers, therapists — even the neighbours — that her daughter was dangerous.
"I said, 'Somebody is going to get hurt ... she's going to die or somebody will die,'" she said this week during an exclusive interview in her home in Greenfield, N.S., a rural community about 130 kilometres west of Halifax.
She said her daughter, Elliott Chorny, has struggled with mental illness since she was a child. Chorny managed her condition with medication and therapy when she was younger, but her health declined while dealing with physical health problems, relentless — and sometimes violent — bullying, and ultimately the death of her biological father last year, with whom she had only recently established contact.
Chorny has been charged with attempted murder and possession of a weapon dangerous to public peace, after a six-year-old boy was found suffering from multiple stab wounds in downtown Halifax on Sunday afternoon in an apparent random attack. Police say Chorny was carrying a knife.
The boy, whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban due to his age, was taken to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, the region's children's hospital, with life-threatening injuries. On Tuesday, police said his condition had been upgraded to stable, but he remained in hospital Thursday.
CBC News has not been able to make contact with his parents. Police say one of them was instrumental in ensuring Chorny remained on scene.
Hancock, 45, said her heart goes out to the boy, and she feels a responsibility to share her family's story — not to make excuses but to try to prevent such violence from happening again.
"I need things to change and I need the government to hear this and I need the health services to hear this. I need everyone to hear this," she said.
Diagnosed with OCD at 7
Hancock said Chorny was a pleasant child who loved to learn but when she was seven, she abruptly started showing aggression and throwing temper tantrums. She was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder.
Even at that young age, she restricted what she was eating because she feared heart attacks after learning about health at school. Similarly, when she learned about the environment, finding ways to protect the earth weighed on her, her mother said.
In middle school, the bullying started.
Around that time, Chorny also contracted Lyme disease — a serious illness caused by the bite of an infected blacklegged tick. Hancock said her daughter's case was "extreme" and led to multiple surgeries.
As a result, she said, Chorny's mental health declined and her OCD "exploded," landing her at the Garron Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, an acute inpatient care unit at the IWK Health Centre.
Just last year, she was also diagnosed with autism after being on a waitlist for assessment for more than a decade.
There are two autism assessment waitlists in Nova Scotia — one for children before they enter school and another for children once they have started school. The waitlist fluctuates for a variety of reasons, but there are currently 501 children on the school-age assessment list, with an average wait time of 390 to 445 days.
On her 18th birthday, in June 2024, Chorny began refusing to take her medication. Her mother worried about the safety of her other, younger, child.
Social workers deemed Chorny unsafe to live at home, and she began bouncing around from shelter to shelter, paranoid that she couldn't stay in one place too long or she would "build up corrosive negative energy," her mother said.
Previous assault charge
One month before the attack on the child, Hancock, who maintained regular contact with Chorny, said a passerby found her daughter standing on a bridge over train tracks, threatening to jump.
"The police took her to the hospital to get psychiatric care, and they thought she wasn't a danger to herself and others," Hancock said. "And this is the second time she was pulled off a bridge."
Hancock said police told her it resulted in an altercation with a doctor because Chorny didn't want to be released – she wanted help, just not medication.
Court documents show she was charged with assault.
Hancock said she phoned the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax that day.
"I said, 'You just let a very dangerous person out on the street,'" she said. "They said, 'I'm going to be hanging up on you now," and 'I can't discuss this.'"
Online comments days before boy's stabbing
In an online forum, Chorny posted many comments about self-harm. She also shared her birth certificate there to confirm her identity, which her mother has verified for CBC News.
Five days before the alleged attack, she wrote, "I apologize in advance if I live and do something awful."
Nova Scotia Health said it can't discuss specific cases, citing privacy concerns and, in this case, an ongoing criminal investigation.
In a statement, a spokesperson said the decision to admit or discharge a patient with suicidal ideation is based on multiple factors that are assessed by the treating team.
"These may include things like a history of previous ideation or attempts, protective factors (family), presence of acute stressors, ability to communicate a safety plan and many others," the statement said.
In general, Dr. Sabina Abidi, associate chief of psychiatry at the IWK, says that in some cases unnecessary admission to hospital may also cause further harm.
"Without a doubt, if we're able to provide care for a young person in their communities and in their homes, that leads to best outcomes," she said.
Nova Scotia Health also notes that in the vast majority of cases, people who live with mental illness never resort to violence.
Hancock said the province needs a residential program, in which people suffering with mental illness can access ongoing wellness care, without having to be in crisis.
IWK Adolescent Intensive Services does provide day and inpatient care for youth with severe mental health problems who need intensive treatment but who don't require acute inpatient emergency care.
Hancock said her daughter tried that program twice but required more care than it could provide. On one occasion, she had to leave the program after deliberately pouring tea on herself and being taken to hospital by ambulance.
Hancock said when her daughter was more stable, they wanted to try again, but by then there was a waitlist.
Premier 'dropped the ball'
The night the boy was attacked, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston posted on social media, expressing his "outrage and sadness" and said the person who did this should be "kept locked behind bars."
Two days later, he was asked by a reporter if he regretted that statement now that there is reason to believe mental illness may have been a factor. He replied, "Any person who represents such a danger to others that this could happen, that person shouldn't just be just walking around society."
Hancock, who said Houston has "dropped the ball" when it comes to mental health, said she couldn't agree more with that sentiment.
"What does that look like? Where do we go? Why couldn't we find a place before?" she said.
Archie Kaiser, a law professor at Dalhousie University with a cross appointment in the department of psychiatry, said he is "very troubled" by the premier's comments.
He said as the chief of the Executive Council, the premier "should not be saying anything that may presuppose any of the facts that may erode the person's entitlement to be treated with dignity and respect of 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 she will be back in court to enter a plea.
The Crown has not asked for a psychiatric assessment.
Hancock said she knows her daughter is accused of "a very heinous act" and that there must be consequences, but she hopes that also includes her getting the help she needs.
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