A porter delivering fuel was yesterday stabbed to death at 14 Miles, Issano, during an altercation with two men.
Delrick Layne, 30, of Lot 35 Caribisi Hill, Bartica, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Bartica Hospital, where he was taken for attention for suspected stab wounds about his body.
In a release, police said that they were investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident, which occurred at about 3:30am. It was noted that a team of police officers has been dispatched to the area to conduct investigations.
Stabroek News spoke to the dead man’s wife, Hazlyn Thomas, who said that she last saw him on Monday, before he left on the truck to transport the fuel.
She said the police visited her home sometime around midday and told her to go to the hospital. “They didn’t say he was dead, they just tell me to go down to the hospital, so me and his mother went,” the woman said.
She told this newspaper that they had initially thought that Layne was only injured but while at the hospital, information started to circulate throughout the community, eventually reaching them that he had died.
“The police didn’t tell us that he dead but is through hearsay, you know. We knew we were waiting on a dead man… people already de start talking that he was involved in a scuffle with two men,” she added.
Thomas said that the body arrived at the hospital a few hours later and while viewing it, a stab wound to the chest was observed. “I really couldn’t handle it, I couldn’t bear it but I saw one to the middle of his chest and I hear that he was stabbed about his groin and stomach and so on, is multiple stab wounds he get,” the woman stated.
Layne was said to be very willing, helpful and family-oriented. According to Thomas, he used to work regularly in the interior areas but had stopped for about a year, before returning recently.
This newspaper established contact with Layne’s employer, Dar (only name given), who last evening said that he would be unable to provide information at that time, since he is yet to meet with the driver of the truck.
He explained it was only Layne and the truck driver that had journeyed to Issano and as a result only the driver can provide a detailed account of what transpired. He asked to be contacted today when the driver is expected to return to Bartica.
Layne has two children, ages 5 and 7, and he is also survived by two siblings and his mother, whom he took care of.
The body of the deceased remains at the hospital’s mortuary and a post-mortem examination is expected to be conducted soon.
