A Herstelling labourer was yesterday morning fatally stabbed by his friend who had accused him of shortchanging him $500 in a drug transaction.
Eon Daniels, 34, of Last Street, Herstelling, East Bank Demerara was stabbed in the chest and the wound reportedly punctured his lungs. He was pronounced dead at the Diamond Diagnostic Centre sometime after 1 am yesterday. Police are hunting the killer who fled after the incident.
“For $500 I lost a big son”, a tearful Claudette Daniels told Stabroek News on Mother’s Day. “Dem was good friends”, she said. “Why he din ask me for the $500? I would have given him that, because you know, mothers want peace.”
Daniels told Stabroek News that the conflict between her son and the killer – who often stayed at the home because he fathered a child with their relative – began on Saturday. She said that after the stabbing, she learnt that the assailant had asked Eon to buy something for him but when he received the item, accused Eon of buying $100 worth rather than the $600 worth, he had sent him for. She later learnt that the “thing” they were referring to was drugs, Daniels said.
Later Saturday night, Daniels recalled, the two argued again about the $500. This was after 9pm. “(The killer) tell Eon ‘you is a hungry belly and doan leh me see you back at the party for the night’”, Daniels recalled. A party was ongoing not too far from the home and the assailant was helping out there during the day. The two exchanged words on the street not far from the home and Eon called the other man a liar. Daniels said this was the last time she saw her eldest son alive.
Following this argument, Eon went to one of his brothers’ home at Herstelling and left when the man returned home. Daniels said that he passed by the party around midnight and was dancing on the road when the assailant approached him and the argument restarted. “Like they had a lil scramble and the (partygoers) saw (the killer) with the knife and they push dem off and send dem off”, she said. The assailant pulled out a knife while Eon was armed with a pot spoon, Daniels said.
She said that after the two were sent away from the party, Eon was walking home and the killer went another way but turned and met her son close to a bridge. He then stabbed him. Eon collapsed while the killer fled. “All I hear is me next son pick he up and carry he to the hospital at Diamond and next ten minutes he was pronounced dead,” Daniels recalled. She said that her son was stabbed in the chest and his lungs were reportedly punctured. She did not go to the scene because she cannot stand the sight of blood, she said.
The police were notified and are seeking the killer. Daniels said that they fear that he would flee to Brazil as he had often said that he has relatives there. She said that this is the second time that the man has attacked Eon. The last time was a year ago when he cut him on the face. “This is the gift I get for Mother’s Day,” Daniels lamented.
Eon is also survived by three brothers and a sister. Police are continuing their investigations.
