A Moruca businessman was brutally chopped in his sleep last week following an argument over a game of pool. The suspect is said to be roaming freely around the village.
Gerald La Rose, 44, of Kabakali, Moruca was chopped several times to the head and hands on Thursday after he removed a “cheating” customer from playing a game of pool at his business place. La Rose told Stabroek News that he was asleep in his benab in the Region One community and sometime around 8:30pm on Thursday, he was chopped several times about the body. La Rose sustained a chop to his head resulting in him receiving 15 stitches and both of his hands were “chopped to the bone.”
The businessman said that this was the first incident he had with the man. He stated that the man became annoyed after he removed him from his business place. “He was intoxicated and he wanted to play and so we allow he to play and he started cheating, so I told him that he cannot do that and I carry him out and we had a scuffle,” he said.
La Rose added that after Rodrigues was removed from his premises, he returned to playing pools with two friends whom he had been playing with prior to Rodrigues’ arrival. La Rose said that he subsequently went to a benab aback his shop. “I went in my benab and I sat down and eventually fell asleep and I didn’t know anything else. When I wake up, I found myself in the hospital,” he said.
“The guy that was working with me told me that if he wasn’t there then (the attacker) would have killed me. He saw everything that happened,” he added.
La Rose was rushed to the Charity Hospital but was later referred to the Suddie Hospital. The man said that due to the extent of his injuries, he was later transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) where he underwent an emergency operation on his hands. He was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday.
La Rose said after the incident, the police were summoned and they arrested the man. He said that he was told that the man was later charged for the incident but this was never confirmed. The injured man related that when he called the Moruca Police Station, he was informed that they had no knowledge of the man being charged or even appearing in court.
The man is pleading with the police in Moruca to investigate the matter since he is of the view that if he returns to his village there could be more trouble.
