PHILIPPINES – A psychotic-looking attacker took a woman’s son hostage with an ice pick, and seemed as though he was ready to plunge his weapon into the young boy’s throat – until the mother produced a red crucifix, calming the attacker enough for police to intervene and save the young boy’s life.

Seems hard to believe, almost fictional, but remember the so-called “zombie summer” and how we reported that we were moving into the “vampire fall”?

Photos show a wild-eyed young attacker, wielding a long ice pick and wearing a plastic smock, grinding his teeth together as he prepares to mortally wound his 9-year-old hostage. A woman, believed to be the boy’s mother, calmly approaches brandishing a red crucifix. After what appears to be some sort of conversation, the attacker calms down, and his anger seems to give way to incredible remorse. From that point, it is unclear how the attacker was taken down. Some say that it was the mother, others say the police intervened, according to Daily Mail.

According to The Sun, the hostage-taker is 24-year-old Reimer Parparan. The boy, identified as Mark Jason Pineda, was taken hostage by Parparan at around 11:00 p.m. Friday night after the latter walked 13 miles to Quezon City’s Barangay Kristong Hari district. The stand-off ended at around 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Pineda was taken to a local hospital and treated for two small nicks on his neck from the ice pick.

Parparan was arrested and is currently facing serious charges, according to Quezon City Police District Chief Superintendent Mario O. Dela Vega, who also released a statement detailing their side of the story:

“The hostage negotiator opted to wait and put on hold any tactical manoeuvre and decided to wear down the suspect who appeared to be suffering from a mental breakdown and has no clear demands for his brash actions. The method employed by police finally paid off when it compelled the troubled suspect to ask for drinking water providing for an avenue for police to negotiate and bargain with him that eventually ended the stalemate around 7.30am in the morning with the release of the hostage.”

Curiously, there is no mention of the crucifix-wielding mom (unless she and the hostage negotiator are one and the same). So what are these pictures all about?

Mom Wields Crucifix Against Son’s Attacker… And Wins is a post from: The Inquisitr