Years of drunken brawls and threats to kill each other sadly came to fruition yesterday when a man was stabbed with a broken bottle by his younger brother in Enmore North, East Coast Demerara.
Dead is Ganesh Nabbie, 33, of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice. The father of two bled profusely from a gaping neck wound and died while receiving treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
His brother and assailant, Joseph Kaladeen, 31, of Lot 152 Enmore North, was arrested at a shop several streets away from where the incident occurred. Stabroek News understands that Kaladeen, a father of six, is claiming that his brother broke the bottle and stabbed himself in the neck.
The brothers, both fishermen and alcoholics, were described as menaces to the Enmore community.
The men’s stepmother Chowcoomarie Heralall, who witnessed the incident, was still in shock.
She recalled that some time around 10:30 am, the brothers, who were drinking, began arguing over a hammock and rum.
Kaladeen lives next door to her, Heralall said, and Nabbie would visit often.
Heralall said she heard Kaladeen telling his brother, who is popularly known as ‘Van Damme,’ repeatedly not to sit in his hammock and not to drink his rum. Stabroek News understands that the men were also heard arguing over a cellular phone that had been lost, but had been replaced by Nabbie.
Heralall said that shortly after she heard Kaladeen warning Nabbie, Nabbie ran into her yard and ended up on her steps. Kaladeen, she said, scaled the fence separating the two yards in pursuit of his brother. He then broke a bottle and stabbed him in the neck.
Throughout the ordeal, the woman said, she locked herself in her home because she had experienced the men’s violence before.
She said they had both beaten her before and she had made several reports to the police.
This newspaper was told that after Heralall realized what had happened, she screamed for help but none of the neighbours responded to her cries. “All ah hear he [Nabbie] seh is ‘help’,” a shaken Heralall told this newspaper shortly after she returned home from the police station.
The woman recalled too that moments before he stabbed his brother, Kaladeen pulled off a jersey and a belt that Nabbie was wearing. He claimed that the items belonged to him.
Meanwhile, a resident, Rene Gordon, said he was in his farm located near the two houses, when he heard Kaladeen saying that he would kill Nabbie and that the police should be called. The man said that shortly after this, he saw Kaladeen beating his brother and then Kaladeen grabbed off Nabbie’s jersey and belt claiming they were his.
The man told this newspaper that a short while later, he heard Heralall shouting, “y’all rest y’all self; y’all rest y’all self. Joey lef de boy.” Seconds later, the woman was screaming, “y’all come and see Joey kill he brodda”. According to Gordon, he then saw Kaladeen go back to his own house before returning to look at his bleeding brother.
The man, he said, then calmly walked out of the street. “He showed no emotion. Is like if nothing ain’t happen,” Gordon said, adding that he wanted to ensure the attacker did not get away, so he followed him.
He later encountered the police and following enquiries, Gordon said, Kaladeen was found sitting in a shop two corners away.
A neighbour, Derreck Seymour, said that after being stabbed, Nabbie toppled down the stairs of his father’s house.
The muddy area around the stairs was red with blood when this newspaper visited. The jersey that had been pulled off Nabbie was on the ground nearby and broken glass littered the top of the stairs.
‘I predicted this…’
The men’s father, Edwin Kaladeen, said that they had been heavy drinkers for about six years now and he predicted that “this might happen because of their behavior.”
According to Edwin, the men’s mother was the fuel behind their behaviour as she was the one who give them money to support their habit and often bought cell phones and other items for them.
He could not say if the woman was aware of the tragic incident. “I know this woulda happen. It was only a matter of time,” he added.
According to Heralall, the brothers never “lived nice” as they always had a problem.
She said that at the police station the attacker attempted to give the police a wrong name but she told ranks the truth.
She said Kaladeen was upset with her and believes the man “got me in he mind”.
One resident blamed yesterday’s episode on alcohol before pointing out that this is an issue that is affecting many men, both young and old in the area.
Several houses away, a man who appeared to be in his late 40s or early 50s was in a drunken state. The man openly cursed a media worker who had berated him about his behaviour.
Residents said that drinking from early in the day is a norm in the community. According to one man, rum is breakfast for some people.
Stabroek News was told that consumption of rum usually leads to fights and that both Kaladeen and Nabbie had been beaten often in the past, but they still continued to drink.
A resident said that several days ago, after Nabbie had been beaten yet again by his drinking partners, he warned him to change his behaviour before someone got killed.
Residents hope that in the light of this incident, young people in the area would desist from consuming alcohol and instead work towards building strong families and a solid future.
