Father Stabs Self To Death In Front Of Police Following Death Of His 6-Year-Old Son

“Father stabs self” is a phrase you’ve probably seen turn up on the trending news charts today, and that’s because of a Boston tragedy in which a man’s 6-year-old son reportedly died of cardiac arrest.

Boston Police report that Destin Williams-Marcelin, the boy, went into cardiac arrest on 61 Devon St., where his father’s girlfriend lived. This led detectives to search for Patrick Marcelin, whom they located at his Mattapan apartment on Saturday (pictured above).

Detectives knocked on the door and waited for a response. When the door opened, the elder Marcelin was standing in front of them with a kitchen knife.

At this point, he began stabbing himself before police could restrain him and send for help. Marcelin was taken to the Boston Medical Center, reports the Boston website, where he died from the self-inflicted wounds.

The timetable of the two deaths raises interesting questions.

The child died on Thursday. On Friday, police were informed by family members that the father intended to hurt himself. Detectives finally tracked the man down on Saturday, and that’s when the incident occurred.

It’s not certain what the cause of the 6-year-old boy’s death was.

In a separate report from the Easton Journal and Enterprise, Patrick Marcelin’s age was identified as 49, and the mother’s side of the story was revealed.

According to the Journal, the boy’s mother, 49-year-old Nancy Williams, was on her way to the second-floor Devon Street apartment to pick up Destin and bring him to his first day of school Thursday when police told her the boy had died.

(Williams’ brother-in-law, Jim Jerome, provided that information as Nancy wasn’t in condition to speak to the press.)

Much is still unknown in the “father stabs self” case, and unfortunately, it’s not altogether shocking that something like this could happen.

The Inquisitr reported earlier on a study that showed grieving parents were likely to die earlier as a result of losing a child.

And while Marcelin certainly died an unnatural death, it seems to have been brought on in part from the depression and guilt cited in that past study, though some are speculating that he might have had something to do with the child’s death, resulting in some pretty disgusting and inhuman comments over at the Boston website.

(It is the internet, after all.)

A terrible situation altogether for surviving family members, and our thoughts are with the family at this time.