A Massachusetts mother said her son is still shaken up after two men targeted him in a violent attack as he got off the bus Tuesday.
The 14-year-old said he’d just gotten off at South Main Street when two men drove up in a Jeep, rolled down the window and hurled a hatchet straight at his head, local station WCVB reported. The weapon missed his face by mere inches, his mother said.
“It went right past his face,” she told the station. “When he looked down, it was a sharp, big hatchet.”
Though her son managed to dodge the hatchet, he couldn’t escape the piercing racial slur that came flying from the suspects’ mouth.
“I am very disturbed,” the mother, who asked to remain unnamed, said. “I want them to be safe, feel safe and they don’t right now. (They’re) scared to take the bus.”
North Brookfield police arrived after the incident but were unable to locate the hatchet, according to WCVB. They said it’s possible the men came back and retrieved it.
The teen wasn’t physically hurt in the incident, but his mother said the trauma may take some time to heal.
“He’s upset. He’s confused,” she told the station. “This isn’t the first time he’s heard a racial slur, but it doesn’t get easier any other time that he hears it. It’s traumatizing.”
The school district has alerted families, reminding students and parents to be careful.