Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man contacted the Tafuna Police Substation on October 29, 2023 at 12:32 PM alleging that his 11-year old niece had been assaulted by her mother. When officers arrived, the uncle who made the report, handed officers a metal electrical pipe that was allegedly used to assault his niece. 

Officers met with the victim who sustained 2 minor lacerations on the outer thigh area and below the knee. Dried blood was observed on both lacerations, which were treated by the EMS at the TPS. 

The grandfather, an eye-witness to the incident, reported that he was in his house when his granddaughter ran to him crying and begging for him to help.

He reported that the defendant stabbed the victim’s right leg with the metal pipe several times. The eye-witness says that he tried to stop the defendant a few times, but she kept stabbing the victim’s right leg. 

The victim’s grandfather of the victim also reported to officers that it has been an ongoing issue with the defendant assaulting her daughter everyday.

The victim reported that the defendant (her mother) was upset with her when she refused to obey a personal errand she had given the victim. 

The victim says that she was scared of getting “beat up” by her mother and that’s why she ignored her, and at the time, her mother chased her inside her grandfather’s house. The victim says she went to her grandfather for help, and that’s where her mother stabbed her with the pipe.

The defendant, who was transported from the scene to the TPS, was Mirandized and provided a written statement about the altercation.

According to the defendant, she called the victim several times but she refused to listen. She says she then became upset and chased the victim towards her (the defendant’s) father’s house. 

That’s when she grabbed the metal pipe inside the kitchen and stabbed her daughter twice in the right leg. The defendant stated that she was also upset that her father spoils her daughter too much. 

The defendant was booked and transported to the TCF for 48-hour confinement, and two charges were filed against her — abuse of a child and endangering the welfare of a child, both classified as domestic violence.

Bail for the defendant was set at $5,000.

It’s unknown if the case is now with the Department of Social Services.