Joyce Tang last saw her son six months ago when he left for the goldfields of the North West District. Plans to return home this week were cut short when he was brutally stabbed to death on Monday at Big Creek Landing, NWD.
A distraught Tang told this newspaper yesterday that she was looking forward to seeing Charles but “he coming back in a different way”. Tang said that her 27-year-old son has been a miner for some time now and would spend at much as a year in the interior. She recalled that he left their Pomeroon River, Essequibo home on December 29 last for the Big Creek area. She said that he called her frequently but then the calls stopped. She told this newspaper that recently he contacted a sister and told her that he would have returned home yesterday.
“He sister ask he why he ain’t call me and tell me”, she added. Tang said that on Monday the same daughter called and said that “a girl call from North West and seh how me son get stab and dead”. She said that the caller offered no further information but later they were informed that the perpetrator was caught by residents and tied up.
The woman yesterday cried out for justice. She said that Charles was the 12th of thirteen children. She described him as a “nice, jovial person who liked to gaff and laugh”.
Meanwhile Stabroek News was told that it was residents who caught the suspect and after inflicting a severe beating on him, handed him over to the police. According to the resident, the man sustained injuries to his hand and arm and was transported to the city yesterday morning for further medical attention. When this newspaper visited the suspect, he was asleep. His head and left arm were heavily bandaged.
The resident told this newspaper that Charles died while awaiting a vehicle to transport him to the Port Kaituma Hospital located about an hour and a half drive away. According to the resident, the vehicle transported the body and the suspect to Port Kaituma where the man was pronounced dead and the suspect was admitted to hospital.
Defunct morgue
The resident pointed out that the body is lying at the defunct morgue and expressed concerns over how long it will have to remain there. According to the resident, “this is a police matter” so ranks have to keep throwing ice on the body until the pathologist arrives from the city to do a post- mortem examination. The pathologist is expected to arrive today.
“This (the poor state of the morgue) is continuing to happen and nobody ain’t doing nothing”, he said pointing out that a similar problem exists at the Matthews Ridge facility where the bodies of three accident victims are being stored. According to the resident, it will be interesting to see how the pathologist will be able to conduct the autopsies on the four bodies in one day. He said that it takes about three hours travel by road to get from one morgue to the next.
Police had said in a press release that they are investigating the murder of Tang who was stabbed by another miner around 1000 hours.
According to the police, Tang, was imbibing with another miner at Big Creek Landing, located some 45 km from the Port Kaituma waterfront, when an argument developed between them following which Charles was fatally stabbed.
The knife suspected to have been used in the incident has been recovered by the police.
