Fisherman Vishwanauth Narine was stabbed to death by another man in front his Plastic City home yesterday morning, as a result of a dispute over a missing gas cylinder.
Narine, 23, called “Buddy,” of Lot 6 Plastic City, Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara, was stabbed once to his chest, police said. He was later pronounced dead on arrival at the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH). The suspect, who is also from Plastic City, had not been arrested up to press time.
The dead man’s mother, Sheila Chanderpaul, witnessed the stabbing and blamed it on a dispute over a missing gas cylinder, in which her son was implicated. She added that her son had just stepped outside and got involved in an argument with the suspect’s wife, when the man approached and stabbed him with a “jukka.”
“[The suspect’s] sister-in-law gas bottle lost and she say that [he] thief the bottle and the police come and carry he away. When he at the station, he said that is me son (Narine) thief the bottle,” Chanderpaul said, while recounting the genesis of the dispute.
Police later turned up at Narine’s home and began ransacking it in their bid to find the missing gas cylinder. “The police come over here and look and tumble up the house, everything he tumble up in the house. So, me come out and me say that ‘if you come fuh gas bottle, you can’t tumble all them thing that’ and them say if me talk them gon lock me up,” the woman recalled. She retreated after being threatened by a police officer, while her son was later taken to the police station, where both he and his eventual attacker were ordered to replace the missing gas cylinder. The grieving woman said this arrangement came about after the suspect indicated to the police officers that he preferred to replace the item rather than engaging the attention of the court. Chanderpaul said that after being released from police custody on Wednesday evening, both men returned home and the suspect began verbally abusing Narine. The abuse never ceased until Narine was stabbed yesterday.
“I told my son to go back to the station and report the matter but he did not go. So I tell he that I gon carry he to the station today [Friday] after them call the police yesterday [Thursday] and say he troubling them,” she said.
The grieving woman related that she was not feeling well when she woke up yesterday and so she called Narine over to her home and told him of her condition. While speaking to him, he noticed the suspect’s wife outside of the home and an argument later ensued between him and the woman.
“When the two of them start quarrel so, [the suspect] lef’ he house and come till here and then juk am up… and he tek the jukka and juk he just one time, then one of he [Narine] friend run and pick he up and wash up he skin and carry he to the hospital,” she said.
When Stabroek News visited the home of the dead man, his sister, Sursatie Chanderpaul, was inconsolable as she mourned the loss of her only brother. She told this newspaper that it was the suspect’s wife who armed him with a chopper and the “jukka” and sent him to murder her brother.
“If them been beat me buddy and lef he there, awe won’t a say nutten but them kill am,” she said, while challenging law enforcement officials to find the killer. “Poor people don’t get justice,” she observed.
Narine is survived by his mother and three sisters.
