Her daughter is accused of stabbing a 6-year-old. She says she warned officials

Andrea Hancock says she understands that people are angry with her daughter — she's angry too — but she says the 19-year-old is also severely unwell, and she warned police, social workers, doctors, shelter workers, therapists — even the neighbours — that her daughter was dangerous.  

"I said, 'Somebody is going to get hurt ... she's going to die or somebody will die,'" she said this week during an exclusive interview in her home in Greenfield, N.S., a rural community about 130 kilometres west of Halifax. 

She said her daughter, Elliott Chorny, has struggled with mental illness since she was a child. Chorny managed her condition with medication and therapy when she was younger, but her health declined while dealing with physical health problems, relentless — and sometimes violent — bullying, and ultimately the death of her biological father last year, with whom she had only recently established contact. 

Chorny has been charged with attempted murder and possession of a weapon dangerous to public peace, after a six-year-old boy was found suffering from multiple stab wounds in downtown Halifax on Sunday afternoon in an apparent random attack. Police say Chorny was carrying a knife. 

The boy, whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban due to his age, was taken to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, the region's children's hospital, with life-threatening injuries. On Tuesday, police said his condition had been upgraded to stable, but he remained in hospital Thursday.

CBC News has not been able to make contact with his parents. Police say one of them was instrumental in ensuring Chorny remained on scene. 

Hancock, 45, said her heart goes out to the boy, and she feels a responsibility to share her family's story — not to make excuses but to try to prevent such violence from happening again. 

"I need things to change and I need the government to hear this and I need the health services to hear this. I need everyone to hear this," she said. 

Hancock said Chorny was a pleasant child who loved to learn but when she was seven, she abruptly started showing aggression and throwing temper tantrums. She was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder.

Even at that young age, she restricted what she was eating because she feared heart attacks after learning about health at school. Similarly, when she learned about the environment, finding ways to protect the earth weighed on her, her mother said.  

In middle school, the bullying started. 

Around that time, Chorny also contracted Lyme disease — a serious illness caused by the bite of an infected blacklegged tick. Hancock said her daughter's case was "extreme" and led to multiple surgeries.  

As a result, she said, Chorny's mental health declined and her OCD "exploded," landing her at the Garron Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, an acute inpatient care unit at the IWK Health Centre. 

Just last year, she was also diagnosed with autism after being on a waitlist for assessment for more than a decade.