Boy found dead with toy weapon

Edmonton Sun ^ | Nov 15, 2005 | BROOKES MERRITT

[proud_yank]

An Edmonton family is grieving the loss of their middle child today, after the 10-year-old boy was found dead yesterday morning in the family's north-end home.

EMS Supt. Wes Bogdane said emergency crews found the boy with a pair of toy nunchuks wrapped around his neck. Nunchuks are a martial arts weapon, made up of two sticks joined by a short length of rope or chain.

Paramedics responded to 12720 48 St. shortly after 7:30 a.m. yesterday, and said Christopher White was dead when they got there.

The medical examiner's office is investigating the circumstances of the death, and a cause has yet to be determined, said spokesman Ron Jacobs.

Police have ruled out foul play, and say it appears Chris may have died as the result of an accident.

The White family declined comment yesterday, but a neighbour said Chris was active and full of energy.

"He was involved in his school and he loved martial arts," said Doug Lunden, who lives down the street from the Whites.

"He just won a silver medal in a martial arts competition."

Lunden expressed grief for the family, and hoped Chris's two surviving sisters, one older and one younger, could help his father cope with the loss of his son.

"They've got those two girls and they've had support all day," Lunden said.

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, was shocked to hear the news of Chris's death.

"He was only 10. I just can't imagine it. How horrible," she said. "My prayers are with them."

Crisis counsellors were offering support to White's Grade 5 classmates yesterday at Father Leo Green School, and a letter reporting the boy's death was sent home to parents.

The report of toy nunchuks wrapped around the boy's throat raised eyebrows in the local martial arts community.

Nunchuks - the real kind - are a prohibited weapon in Canada, said Edmonton Police Insp. Dennis Pysyk.

Craig Stanley, a seventh-degree tae kwon-do master and one of Canada's top martial arts performers, said weapons training is uncommon in martial arts - especially for young children.

"It's normally reserved for kung fu training," said Stanley, who runs the Phoenix Tae Kwon-Do club in St. Albert.

"Taekwondo means 'the way of the hand and foot,' and karate uses open-hand techniques."

But Stanley said some martial arts clubs do train with weapons - especially when it draws in customers.

"It's usually instructors who need to bring in more students, because weapons are attractive."

Hong Park Tae Kwon-Do College instructor Patrick Gallagher, 20, says his club trains with foam-wrapped nunchuks.

"Usually the chain isn't long enough to wrap around somebody's neck," he said. "I've never heard of anybody strangling themselves with a nunchuk before."

Dr. Louis Francescutti, an injury prevention advocate, said he's never heard of such a tragedy, but that "injuries are the leading cause of death in kids."

[proud_yank]

Hey, we all need a cause. Right? /s

[theDentist]

IF NUNCHUKS WERE OUTLAWED...

[planekT]

That's what I thought.

[kenth]

Nunchuck chains or rope (on a toy?) are rarely long enough to wrap around anyone's neck. As you said, why couldn't they have just been unwrapped? I wonder if he hit his windpipe really hard or something.

[apackof2]

LOL!

[RandallFlagg]

I've been able to use dual nunchaku since I was about seven years old. Bruce Lee favored the ones with the longer chain/string. I favor the shorter ones.

Where were the parents?!

[RandallFlagg]

There's the possibility. Some are made with longer chains/cords.

I'm guessing that he tried to bring them around his neck from one hand to the other too fast and didn't catch the other stick. It may have slammed into his head or cut off the circulation to his brain (if the chain/cord was long enough to encircle the throat area), and he passed out. I've had some get wrapped around my palm and the wood ends (holding the connecting material) would lock together briefly.

Too bad for one so young, too.


Bruce Lee with (I think) nine-inch nunchaku in, "The Return of the Dragon."

[Valpal1]

Perhaps he was playing at self strangulation to get a rush. This is becoming a phenomenom in the grade school set.