A cane harvester of Clifton Settlement, Port Mourant, Corentyne who was brutally chopped around 8 pm last Sunday while asleep in a relative’s hammock, died at the New Amsterdam hospital on Monday.
According to reports, 30-year-old Deonarine “Monster” Mingo received about eight chops about his head, neck, hands and other parts of his body and he bled profusely.
Police have not yet recovered the blood-soaked hammock and the cutlass that the attacker used.
Mingo’s cousin, Radika Jodhan, whom he sometimes stayed with, told Stabroek News that she learnt that after Mingo was chopped the attacker’s relatives tried to dress the wounds but soon realized that it was “hopeless.”
She said they rushed him to the Port Mourant Hospital without informing his relatives. He spent two hours there before he was taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital where he was admitted.
Around 7.30 am on Monday, Mingo’s sister was informed that her brother had been chopped and was hospitalized. Jodhan said the sister arrived at the hospital around 11.30 am for the midday visit and saw porters pushing her brother on a stretcher.
She inquired where they were taking him and they responded that he was going to have surgery. However, on closer inspection, she realized that her brother was dead. When she asked the porters, they only confirmed her suspicions after they learnt she was his sister.
Eyewitnesses related that Mingo – who did not have a fixed place of abode after separating from his wife six months ago – had been drinking earlier with his friends before leaving to go to his niece’s house for food.
The niece’s 21-year-old husband, who had also been drinking with a group of men, went home and saw Mingo asleep in the hammock. Stabroek News learnt that he reportedly told his drinking partners he would “chop Monster.”
Reports are that “around 8:30 pm to 9 pm he returned home and asked his wife for the cutlass. She refused to give it to him and he went into the house and retrieved it himself. He started firing the chops and he [Mingo] was barring with his hands…”
When this newspaper visited yesterday, relatives had just returned from the hospital after witnessing the post-mortem. They were told to return today for the results.
The attacker is currently in police custody and charges are likely to be laid against him shortly.
