Following threats and a prior attack, a Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara fireman was early yesterday morning brutally chopped to death by three men in a shocking attack which residents said would not have occurred had police heeded several reports made by the deceased man.
Patrick Daly, 30, locked himself in an outhouse but his attackers forced it open, threw acid on him, dragged him out and chopped him to death. Four persons were in custody up to yesterday afternoon, but two others who participated in the attack had not been located by law enforcement authorities. The assailants lived in the same building as Daly, and his wife said that the attack was sparked by complaints about the noise they made.
Police said last evening that an investigation has been launched into the murder. The lawmen said in a statement that Daly was in an outhouse in his yard when three male suspects with whom he had a recent misunderstanding confronted and threw a corrosive substance on him then inflicted several chops about his body and fled the scene. He died before receiving medical attention and his body is awaiting a post-mortem examination, the police said, adding that the suspects are still being sought as investigations continue.
Daly worked at the Timehri Fire Station and was in the Guyana Fire Service for the past 11 years. Struggling to maintain her composure, his reputed wife Denise George told Stabroek News yesterday that her husband had gotten up to go to the bathroom around 5.30 am yesterday. She said that shortly after, she heard him calling her name and when she went outside, she saw two men, one holding a cutlass and the other holding a container, with what she learnt was acid, standing outside the toilet.
Daly had locked himself in the toilet while his attackers demanded that he come out. “They seh, ‘come out here, leh we done yuh dance, we gon kill you,’” George recalled.
The grieving woman recounted that her husband told her to call the police and she did so but received no answer from the Timehri Police Station. By this point another man had joined in the attack and with an iron bar, wrenched open the door. “When they open the door, they pull he out and throw the acid on he and start chop he,” the woman recalled. She said that he kept calling for her to call the police but “the phone keep ringing out.” Daly’s attackers dragged him a short distance away to the backyard.
“I lef and run out the yard, go pun the road, catch a bus and go to the station,” George recalled. She said she returned with two policemen but by then the men had already fled and her husband was dead.
Neighbours said that another man picked up the attackers in his car and drove away. The driver, the man who wrenched open the toilet door, a woman who allegedly supplied the cutlass and another man were later held by police. They are all relatives and the woman also lives in the same building.
The men had earlier threatened to kill Daly and had attacked him on Sunday, George said and this was corroborated by other residents. A number of persons rent
apartments in the building and they said that the assailants usually drank a lot and made a lot of noise.
Recently, the residents said, the landlord told them about it but they verbally abused him. On Saturday night, one of the men reportedly attempted to attack the landlord but Daly and another man went to his assistance.
This incident was said to have made them very angry and they threatened that they would kill Daly. The following day, the men attempted to attack Daly as he was returning from buying cooking gas and he had to run into a neighbour’s house to escape them. They attempted to follow him but were prevented from doing so by the homeowner.
George said that on Sunday, her husband reported the matter to the Timehri Police Station and, according to her, spent the entire day there in an attempt to get the police to go to the house to arrest the men, but to no avail. He returned to the police station on Monday, but again the police did not go to the house. They had also called the police at Grove, who referred them to Timehri and they called 911, all to no avail, George said. A number of residents had gathered to offer support to the grieving George and they were angry that the police had not responded to the calls. They said that the police had offered the excuse that they had no vehicle.
“’Til this murder happen, then they come,” said one upset resident, “This boy life coulda save.”Residents called for the police at Timehri to “act properly…they ain get no help from the police. If the police de come, the man life woulda save.”
Daly and George had been together for three years and had no children. Neighbours described him as “very quiet and peaceful” and a humble person.
