A homeless man was found dead yesterday morning outside a business place on Lombard Street by one of his fellow pavement dwellers.
The man was positively identified by friends as Keith Marshall said to be in his mid- to late forties and was a cigarette vendor who more recently took up the trade of repairing umbrellas along Lombard Street.
A friend of the deceased, Carol Frank told this newspaper that when she left the scene at approximately 8:30 am yesterday, the police were still investigating and the body had not yet been removed. “He had blood oozing from the right side of his head,” the woman said.
According to Samuel Williams, the deceased’s homeless colleague who discovered him dead at approximately 2 am yesterday, Marshall who is known as ‘Home Alone’, went to sleep as usual on the street.
Williams said he was already asleep but was awakened when `Home Alone’ arrived. He was making a lot of noise from constantly coughing, something, the man pointed out, which he had been doing constantly for approximately six months.
“About one hour after he come I hear he start coughing again,” the man explained, “he get up, stagger over to the drain, cough some more and just fall down.” Williams told this newspaper that the fall caused the man to hit his head, leaving a wound.
“By de time I get up to see wha happen to he, he de done dead,” the homeless man related.
After he realised what had happened he alerted a security guard in the building next door who then called the police.
The security guard said, “They usually sleep all over but when it rains they come here”. After some thought, he added, “I guess is kinda like they shuffling their beds.”
Frank’s brother, Orin McKenzie, told this newspaper via the telephone that Marshall was a sick man and had recently collapsed resulting in him receiving treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
McKenzie added, “He been back here (Guyana) for a few years now. He originally from Agricola but I ain’t really know how he start sleeping on the streets.” It was said that Marshall had been deported here from Canada.
