Years of feuding between two women ended tragically last night at the Stabroek Market square when a man’s former girlfriend and mother of his child fatally stabbed his current girlfriend in the chest.
Stabroek Market vendor Latisha Rodrigues was reportedly stabbed once in the vicinity of the chest. The incident occurred some time after 7pm and the woman was subsequently pronounced dead at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
Over the last five years, Anastasia Gordon said, her sister had battled with the ‘child mother’ of her boyfriend. On Saturday, Rodrigues and her alleged attacker had had a bitter confrontation.
“My sister boyfriend in jail right now… but is years now since she start seeing this man and he child mother just won’t leave she alone,” Gordon said.
Rodrigues, 31, of Lot 80 Breda Street, Georgetown has had several court cases with her alleged attacker in the last few years. The women, Gordon said, were currently in court with each other.
Last week, Gordon explained, she returned home from Trinidad where she worked. It was nothing new, she said, to hear Rodrigues complain about the continuous confrontations with her man’s ‘child mother.’
After the woman confronted her sister at the Stabroek Market on Saturday, Gordon recalled, Rodrigues told her and other relatives that her long-standing rival had threatened to kill her.
“This woman tell my sister that she going to bus’ she up,” Gordon said.
However, when her sister went to the police she was “chased” after other vendors lied to the ranks and said that her sister’s rival had never threatened to kill her nor was she attacked.
Some time around 7pm, Gordon said she learnt from persons at the scene, her sister’s attacker had sent a male friend to start an argument with Rodrigues. It was while Rodrigues’ attention had reportedly been centred on the argument with the man that the woman had launched her attack.
“She come at my sister from behind and attack she and she stab she one time,” Gordon said.
Gordon further reported that she wasn’t sure what sort of weapon had been used to stab her sister but after the attack the assailant had fled the scene. Up to late last night police were yet to arrest Rodrigues’ attacker.
Meanwhile, when this newspaper arrived at the GPH around 8pm relatives had just got the news of Rodrigues’ death.
“Ow…ow this is how I got to come and see my sister… the police they coulda do something,” Gordon said between sobs outside the hospital’s Emergency Room, “the court they coulda do something… you know how much court order and so my sister get for this woman and still this woman ain’t want to leave she alone.”
Rodrigues’ mother was also in deep shock and her screams could be heard from yards away. The woman repeatedly spoke about the injustice her daughter suffered and was not satisfied that “the authorities” had done enough to see that Rodrigues was given some sort of protection from her boyfriend’s child mother.
The deceased was the fourth of six children for her mother. She lived alone at her Breda Street home and had been planning to start a family.
Relatives expressed the hope that police would be able to apprehend Rodrigues’ attacker soon. Justice, they said, was something they intend to get now.
Police, up to press time, had not issued a statement on the incident. However, this newspaper was reliably informed that a search was being carried out for the perpetrator.
