Filicide Most Foul: Indian American Man Charged With Capital Murder in Death of 9-year-old Son
- Subramanian Ponnazhakan, 39, of McKinney, Texas, allegedly stabbed the child on Jan. 6, before turning the knife on himself.
A 39-year-old Indian American man has been charged with capital murder in the death of his 9-year-old son. Subramanian Ponnazhakan of McKinney, Texas, allegedly stabbed his son on Jan. 6, before turning the knife on himself, according to an update from the McKinney Police Department. Ponnazhakan is still hospitalized for self-inflicted wounds, the police said, adding that his bond has been set at $1 million.
In a video posted on Facebook, a McKinney police spokeswoman said they became aware of this case when a neighbor called 911. The caller said that a woman, her neighbor, had found her son unconscious and bleeding inside her home. Officers forced entry into the location and located the woman’s husband in the act of inflicting self-harm with a knife. Officers also discovered the child in the garage with “multiple stab wounds,” and was pronounced dead on the scene, the spokeswoman said. No other person was found in the home, she said, stressing that there was no threat to the public as this violence was domestic in nature.
Police told FOX 4 there’s no history of 911 calls to the family’s home and no history of Child Protective Services being involved. The child’s name has not been released, but Fox News reported that he is a student at Prosper Independent School District.
Terry Dalessandro, who lives near the Ponnazhakans told Fox News that when she was walking her dog earlier on Jan. 6, she did see the mother who was upset. She said the child’s mother was trying to get help. “When I first walked by, she was over at the neighbor’s crying and she came back over to the house and was knocking at the door, frantically, yelling. I couldn’t understand what she was saying,” Dalessandro said to Fox News.
Dinesh Hooda, president-elect of the India Association of North Texas told Fox News that the tight-knit community of McKinney, a suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, is devastated. “People are still praying for the family,” he said. “If you are in stress, if you are not able to handle the situation, reach out to friends for help.” He said the area is one of the largest Indian populations in North Texas. “Most of the people are moving for their families, for kids, because the school districts are so good here.”
Karthik Rangarajan, an employee with the Maryland Department of Human Services, in a Facebook post, wrote that Ponnazhakan was his classmate and hostel mate. He described him as “the most loving, caring, charming, never-had-any-enemies type people” from his batch of friends in college. Noting that it’s “very disheartening” to read “so many absurd comments” about Ponnazhakan and his character on social media, Rangarajanand wrote that “something has gone very wrong but anyone we speak with, including myself, still don’t believe that Ponna would have done something of this magnitude.” He called his friend “the sweetest father to the child, a second mother to the boy, caring for him day and night and something should have gone terribly wrong with himself to get involved in such an act.”