Nine-year-old Devin Mitchell was playing at LaSalle Park in Lachine with his most prized possession, a signed P.K. Subban hat, was stolen.
Now, his mother, Liza Bayev Mitchell, is calling on the public for help.
On Saturday, she says Devin was at the park for his cousin’s birthday party.
The Dorval resident says the party was equipped with a bouncy castle and there were adults on hand supervising.
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At one point, her son and his seven-year-old cousin were playing at the park playground, not far from the birthday party, when she says a group of six boys approached them.
“The boys pushed my nephew onto the ground and then my son,” Bayev Mitchell said. “They were kicking him in the stomach and hit him in the head.”
Bayev Mitchell says the ordeal lasted about a minute and ended before the adults realized what had happened.
What’s worse, Bayev Mitchell says, before leaving, the kids snatched Devin’s hat off of his head.
“He doesn’t understand how or why the kids did what they did,” she said.
“The hat was his prized possession.”
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The hat was given to Devin’s older brother, Adam, a few years ago. It was a part of a donated Christmas basket to the kids.
It is red and beige with a Subban silhouette on the side of it and the superstar’s signature on the front.
“Adam knew how much his younger brother loved Subban and the Habs, so he gave him the hat,” Bayev Mitchell said. “The whole reason why Devin became a goalie is because of Carey Price.”
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The mother of two says her son Devin, who suffers from ADHD, ODD and cognitive communication speech-language developmental delay, is traumatized by the ordeal.
“He can’t sleep at night,” Bayev Mitchell said.
“We do whatever we can for our kids, we always will, but I don’t know how to replace that hat.”