The 15-year-old GAR High School student attacked with a machete two weeks ago is speaking out against violence.
Marquis Allen said he was trying to break up a fight on February 9 only to have his hand nearly chopped off.
“I thought, the first time that he hit me, I thought it was just a bat that hit me but it wasn`t. Then when I looked down at my hand I saw that it was leaning.”
Speaking from his home in Wilkes-Barre, Allen said he was shocked and terrified after realizing his hand had been hacked with a machete.
It was February 9 and the Allen said a fight broke out near his high school and he tried to intervene.
“All I see is a whole bunch of people, fighting, I go down there, try to help them out, next then I know this happen,” said Allen.
The fight broke up as police rushed to the scene and Allen was taken to the hospital and into surgery to reattach his hand.
“Almost nine hours, it was three bones, a tendon, arteries, and a nerve, right now,” said Marquis’ mother Darlene Burt about the surgery. “They trying to see extent of the damage because they really won`t be able to tell for maybe six months to a year.”
Wilkes-Barre Police are looking for Juan Borbon, 19, who they said had the machete.
On February 17, police arrested Yancy Abreau, 16, for reportedly giving Borbon the weapon.
The fight sparked rumors of racial tensions at GAR High School.
School officials added security at a GAR basketball game the same night of the arrest.
However Allen feels racism was not a main factor.
“It was just people that got problems with each other and they ended up being black and Dominican so people kept saying it was racial but I don`t think it was,” said Allen
Allen and his mother want people to focus not on rumors but on the escalating violence among young people before another young person gets hurt.
“For it to get to the point where someone feels the need to bring a weapon, I don`t care what type of weapon, but a weapon?” said Burt. “He could have lost his hand. It was that significant. It went through actually three quarters of his wrist, so he could have lost his hand.”
