A 33-year-old cane harvester of Shieldstown, West Bank Berbice died after suffering a single stab wound to his back around 2:30 am yesterday during a drinking spree at the Rosignol Stelling.
Reports are that Bharrat ‘Sunil’ Tadpaul was involved in an argument with another group of men who were also drinking at a snackette when one dealt him the stab.
A friend, Aslim Razack, 32, who witnessed the stabbing, said he and Tadpaul’s uncle [in-law] were drinking together and they were dancing and having a good time.
He said he got up to use the urinal and as he was returning he saw persons running towards the snackette to see a fight.
He too ran to investigate and noticed the other man grappling with his friend and plunging the “long black-handle knife in his back.” He recalled that Tadpaul fell in front of him bleeding.
The attacker who was drinking with three other men escaped in the direction of his house with the knife still in his hand. Police sources said that the attacker was arrested at his home around 4 am.
Razack said he asked the owner of the snackette to call a taxi to take the injured man to the hospital and he responded that he did not know the taxi number. He then asked the man to call the station and he said he did not know that number as well.
He attempted to run to the station to inform the police and the snackette owner told him to use a bicycle that was there. Before leaving for the station, the owner of a private car arrived and he begged him to take his friend to the hospital.
The man refused saying if the man died in his car he would get into problems. Desperate and with no other choice, Razack rode to the station leaving his wounded friend alone.
He is angry that the officer took the information from him and detained him for one hour because he had blood on his boots.
The officer eventually accompanied him on another bicycle and “he was riding slowly as if he going to the market and he talking on his cell phone.”
When they got there he called out to his friend but there was no response. He said he became angry and used expletives knowing that the long delay at the station had caused his friend to die without receiving treatment.
Shortly after, other police officers arrived at the scene. He and his other drinking partner as well as the man’s relatives were taken to the station to give statements.
Regarding the stabbing he said, “This whole thing happened within three minutes. I feel that if I de make two steps more I would have been able to prevent it…,” Razack who was still in shock told this newspaper sadly.
He could not say what sparked the argument but said it happened while “everyone was on the floor dancing.”
The man who works in the interior said he only came out yesterday and invited Tadpaul and his uncle for a drink.
The man’s wife, Omawattie ‘Sabrina’ Basdeo told this newspaper that she was in bed when her uncle came to her home around 3:30 am to inform her that her husband had been stabbed.
She hurried to the scene and saw him lying on the road in front of the snackette bleeding.
She said she started to scream and the owners of the snackette came out. They said that they did not see what had happened.
The woman said she went to pay bills and when she returned around 5:30 pm her husband had already left home.
