– but weapon not retrieved
The 44-year-old suspect who is in custody at the Fort Wellington Police Station over slashing the throat of a teenager on Sunday at Bush Lot, West Berbice, reportedly confessed to the crime yesterday and took investigators to where the weapon was dumped, but it could not be found.
Darshanan Ramanan, 17, collapsed and died at the corner of the street shortly after the incident, according to eyewitnesses, without receiving medical attention.
Reports are that the suspect, a tractor operator, told police that he was walking along the Middle Dam with another man when he saw Ramanan on a bicycle.
He said Ramanan started to throw remarks at him because the man he was walking with had made reports to the police that the deceased had broken into his house some time ago causing him to be arrested and charged.
The man who the suspect was with kept on walking, but the deceased whipped out a “fine blade cutlass”. The suspect said he took away the cutlass and dealt the teen a chop.
The suspect said too that after receiving the chop the teen ran west in the street and then ran back to the other side before collapsing.
He said that he walked away in the same direction that the deceased ran in.
He then threw the weapon into a canal and went home and told his mother that he “and a man had story and me believe that the man get chop.” Yesterday afternoon he took investigators to the canal, but they were unable to recover the weapon.
Eyewitnesses had told this newspaper that Darshanan Ramanan was seen arguing with the suspect. They claimed that he asked Ramanan, “You believe me can’t chop you?”
They said he then dealt him a single chop to his neck and calmly walked away. The eyewitnesses had said too that Ramanan was seen running frantically up and down the street a few times before collapsing to the ground, bleeding profusely.
A resident telephoned the police who arrived promptly at the scene. They conducted a search for the assailant and found him at his house.
The teen’s distraught mother, Celina Ramanan told Stabroek News that when the police arrived at the scene her son was still breathing and she begged them to take him to the hospital. In tears, she said one of the officers told her that an ambulance would arrive shortly to take him. She waited in vain but no ambulance arrived. However another officer said they had received a call about a “murder” and felt that the man was already dead.
When this newspaper arrived at the scene a large crowd had gathered to get a glimpse of the bloodied body that was lying at the corner of the street. The lad’s mother and other relatives were wailing uncontrollably.
The suspect reportedly told investigators that he never had a problem with Ramanan before. Ramanan’s brother, 18-year-old Dianand had also told this newspaper that his brother knew the killer and as far as he knew they had never had a problem.
Celina said her son left home just before 4 pm on a bicycle and she was shocked when a young man arrived with the news that the attacker “buss me son throat and kill he”.
She said along with other relatives she hurried to the scene and saw her son, the second of five siblings, covered in blood. Charges are likely to be laid following a post-mortem examination which is expected to be conducted on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the mother told this newspaper that another resident of the area went to her home and threatened to kill her 18-year-old son. He was taken into custody but related a different story to the police.
