The year began tragically for a Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo family after a man with a history of mental illness yesterday chopped his wife within an inch of her life before committing suicide by hanging himself as their four children looked on.
Dead is Abdool Hafeez while his reputed wife of 15 years, Agnes Henry is in a critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Grieving relatives gathered at the Lot 12 Tuschen home yesterday trying to come to terms with the senseless tragedy.
The dead man’s mother Bibi Shahidan Khan told Stabroek News that she awoke to loud screams from her daughter-in-law around 3.30 am yesterday. She said Henry was shouting to her to save her before she was killed and she rushed over to the nearby home of her son, but could not get the door open. She said she called to her son to open the door but he did not respond. She then called another son who tried to kick down the door but he, too, failed.
Following that attempt she ran downstairs and grabbed an axe to break down the door but by this time her ten-year-old granddaughter had managed to open it and she hurried in the home where she was greeted by the sight of her son hanging and her daughter-in-law, bleeding profusely, crouched under the bed with two of the children.
She said she and her other son lifted her daughter-in-law out and with the help of a neighbour called a taxi and rushed her to the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH). She was later transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital where she underwent emergency surgery. Henry suffered severe wounds to both of her arms, her chest and her back. The police arrived later and the cutlass used in the incident was handed over to them.
Bibi Shameza, the ten-year-old who opened the door for her grandmother, and two of her three siblings, six-year-old Rafman Ali and five-year-old Adil scrambled under the bed and hid there after the violence started and were joined by their bleeding mother, while two-year-old Shaneeza remained on the bed.
After their father hanged himself, Bibi Shameza quickly opened the door and once it was opened the two boys ran outside.
Relatives said that Hafeez had been suffering from a mental condition since 2005, which saw him seeking treatment many times at the hospital. They said when he drank alcohol, which was often, the condition was aggravated. The symptoms included his entire body feeling cold and clammy and headaches. Additionally, he never ate anything when he was drinking.
According to them, he went to see a doctor and was told if he wanted to live he would have to undergo an operation. Although he was warned not to drink, he continued, they said.
The symptoms of the condition surfaced on Tuesday, his mother said, and she advised him to go to the hospital to get treatment which he did. However, earlier that same day he had burnt his documents including his national ID card saying that he wouldn’t need them anymore.
When he returned from the hospital where he was given medication, his mother said, he seemed normal and went to bed and she did the same never expecting what was to later occur.
Stoically maintaining her composure as she spoke to Stabroek News the woman lamented that the tragedy happened “so quick, so quick he done dead.” However, when a friend arrived to offer her condolences the woman’s composure shattered and in tears she lamented what had happened.
“Me enjoy meself for the new year and watch wha happen now,” she said. With regard to her daughter-in-law she cried, “we na know if she gon live
