A fourth form student of the Brickdam Secondary School was yesterday morning violently attacked in the Stabroek Market area by a mentally-ill man, who was later mercilessly beaten by public-spirited persons.
Kenneth David, 15, of Stanleytown, West Bank Demerara, was on his way to the Brickdam Secondary, where he is a student, when the man ran up behind him and struck him twice to the head before he could shield himself.
“He had a wood in his hand and he lashed me in my head twice and then I was running and he lashed me on my hand and I eventually got away,” David told reporters at the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he had been rushed after the attack.
One of the persons who aided in David’s rescue and accompanied him to the hospital related that the young man was accompanying his brother along Brickdam in the vicinity of the Public Buildings when he was attacked. “The youth was walking with another little boy and the madman had a stick in he hand and he run behind he and start firing bladai bladai. By the time he turn around to run he head done buss up,” the man, who is a vendor, said.
David was taken to the nearby Stabroek Market Mobile Police Outpost, where he was then placed in the car of a public-spirited person and rushed to the hospital with the police.
The mentally-ill man, whose identity has not been ascertained but who is known by the call name “Beast,” received a thrashing from outraged persons who were in the area at the time of the attack. His wounds and bruises were evident when Stabroek News saw him as he was being treated in the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital.
“We beat he fuh a song because they is only play mad you know. How he know to lash the boy when he back turn… and when we charge fuh he if you see how he want get away but them boys hold on pun he and give he it good. He lucky the police save he,” the vendor said.
The injured young man’s mother, Abigail Edwards, told Stabroek News that she was relieved that her son was not seriously injured.
Late yesterday, in giving an update on her son’s condition, Edwards said that while he was discharged and was told that he will be okay, the doctor advised that he be kept under 24-hour watch to monitor his condition. As a result, he will not be attending school today.
The attack on the youth saw members of the public voicing their concern at the apparent laxity of the relevant authorities in addressing the situation of mentally-ill persons “roaming free throughout the city.”
“Nothing is ever done about the mad people everywhere. You don’t have to look far, one can be found on every street and nothing is being done to curb this growing societal nuisance… you will only hear something when someone like this child is hurt or someone turns up dead God forbid,” a nurse at the hospital said.
