-reports
One of four persons held in connection with Tuesday’s fatal beating of Ardell Haynes in the East La Penitence area has been released and sources say around 12 persons surrounded the man during the melee that ended in his death.
Stabroek News understands that the suspect, who was held at his home on Wednesday after those already in custody had implicated him, was released on Thursday night.
Two of the others reside in the East La Penitence area.
When this newspaper visited the area on Thursday, two residents of Macaw Lane said that they were eye witnesses to the beating.
One man recounted that sometime after two that morning, he heard what sounded like someone being beaten a short distance from his home but assumed that it was a commotion among young people on their way home from the football field located further up the road.
However he said that he was forced to get up when the group passed his home and someone was saying “you is a thief”.
The resident said that when he looked out he saw about 10 – 12 persons all shirtless. He said that the place was dark so he was unable to see any faces or who was being beaten. The group he said turned into an alleyway that linked Macaw Lane to Pirai Place. The man said that he heard that someone who was beaten in that area had died later that day.
Another resident said that he was on his veranda when he saw two young men who lived in the area beating a man on the road. The man was reluctant to divulge more information but pointed out that those two persons are in police custody and are providing investigators with information.
According to yet another resident, persons in the area thought that Haynes was a thief who had broken into a house in Pirai Square and attempted to steal a television set and just started to beat him.
During the process, she said the man was hit in the head with a hammer by a woman living in the area. She bemoaned the incident saying that an innocent life was lost because of an allegation.
A resident of Pirai Place told Stabroek News on Thursday that persons in the area are now afraid to say anything. The resident said that she could not identify the persons who brought the man into that street on Tuesday morning but stressed that the beating did not take place there. She added that when the man arrived there, he was so badly wounded that he could not even stand up on his own.
According to the resident many have opted to remain silent because the police had arrested a man who was not at home at the time of the incident. She said too that innocent people who were looking after the welfare of the man by assisting in taking him to the police station are being blamed for something they did not do.
In the meantime, Haynes’s reputed wife Sheril Sydney told Stabroek News that she is fed up of the police’s attitude towards the incident but said that she is depending on Divisional Commander Leroy Brumell for justice.
Sydney expressed disgust that the police did not allow her to witness the post mortem which was conducted on Wednesday saying that they did not allow relatives to witness it anymore. The examination revealed that he died from multiple injuries.
She had told this newspaper that Haynes was a heavy drinker and his popular spot was at a friend’s home on Norton Street. When that friend is not at home, he would go to another friend who lives nearby.
Yesterday, she told Stabroek News that on Monday night Haynes attended a birthday party for a 97-year-old woman who lives on Norton Street.
She explained that before moving to their present address – Spurwing Drive, South Ruimveldt, they lived in that area, so he knew quite a number of people.
According to her, someone lent him a bicycle to ride home and persons at the party saw when he left early Tuesday morning. The woman said that his route would have been straight down Norton Street, over Mandela Avenue into a street that divides Meadow Brook from East La Penitence, then over Aubrey Barker into Cane View Avenue. She explained that he would have taken that route so as to avoid the traffic and that is the route he often used to and from home whenever he was riding.
The woman said that so far in addition to the bicycle he left the party with, his wallet, cap and spectacles are missing. No resident has reported seeing any bicycle on the road where Haynes was reportedly beaten.
She said that that morning he did not leave on a bicycle but in a taxi since he had to take a microwave and a television set to one of his friends on Norton Street for repair.
Sydney added that Haynes will be laid to rest tomorrow.