Pubdate: Sat, 08 May 2004
Source: New York Daily News (NY)
Copyright: 2004 Daily News, L.P.
Contact:  http://www.nydailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295
Authors: Melissa Grace and Jonathan Lemire, Daily News Staff Writers

SON COLLARED IN MA'S BRUTAL KNIFE ATTACK

A neighbor reacts in horror yesterday near the E. 103rd St. home where
Yvonne Stewart was stabbed repeatedly in Canarsie. Cops have charged
her son, Kevon, with first-degree assault. A Brooklyn woman was
stabbed repeatedly by her troubled son and left naked and bleeding on
the street yesterday, less than 48 hours before Mother's Day, police
said.

Yvonne Stewart, 47, was clinging to life at Brookdale University
Hospital hours after collapsing in the front yard of a neighbor's
house in Canarsie.

"She was stabbed all over her body, her neck, back, belly and hand,"
said Richard McKoy, 54, who lives three doors away and rushed outside
when he heard Stewart's cries for help.

"She was cut right down to the bone."

McKoy added that, "She said her son did it to her."

Detectives arrested Kevon Stewart, 21, minutes after the 10:15 a.m.
attack. They found him with a bloody knife a few blocks from the E.
103rd St. apartment he shares with his mother, a police source said.

He had attacked his mother as she came out of the shower, but she
managed to escape his grasp and call 911 before staggering onto her
front porch - leaving blood on its white bannister - and then into the
street, the source said.

Although investigators were uncertain of the motive for the brutal
attack, neighbors said Kevon Stewart had a history of violent outbursts.

"We all knew her son had problems," said next-door neighbor Mark
Zhang, 34. "When he doesn't get his meds, he gets violent, shouting at
his mom and pushing her."

According to the source, one domestic incident report had been
previously filed against Kevon Stewart, who family members said
suffered from emotional problems.

"He's in and out of hospitals," said Jerry Smikle, 47, the father of
one of Yvonne Stewart's other three children. "He started to smoke
weed [and] when he smokes, he goes off."

Smikle said the suspect was not working or in school.

Kevon Stewart was charged with first-degree assault and criminal
possession of a weapon, police said.

"His mother loved him. She was a good mother," said Carmen McKoy, 53,
Richard McKoy's sister-in-law. 
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