A Sophia miner died on Monday after he was dealt a blow to his head by a fellow miner at the mining camp they were working on at West Park Backdam Cuyuni, the police said yesterday.
In a press release, the Guyana Police Force identified the dead man as 42-year-old Michael Morris of 1547 Cummings Park, Sophia, and said that his death followed an altercation he had with some other miners, one of whom, dealt him the fatal blow with a piece of wood.
But relatives of the former bodybuilder said the explanation they had heard was much different from what the police have reported. As a matter of fact,
when Stabroek News contacted the man’s relatives yesterday afternoon they were not even aware that he was dead.
Relatives said the version of the story they knew was conveyed to them by a friend of Morris, who had gone into the Backdam with him, but came out prematurely after he contracted tuberculosis and malaria.
This friend was taken into custody by police last evening, questioned, then released.
The man reportedly told the family that Morris had indeed been in an altercation with another man, and was beaten, but was alive and was being brought out of the location.
He said that Morris had argued on Monday with one of the dredge’s “jet men” while they were working in a mining pit. When it was time for lunch, he continued, all of the workers went to eat, but they noticed that Morris and the man with whom he had the argument were not around.
Morris’s mother, Patricia Morris said she was told that the miners heard a scream not too long into their lunch break, and upon investigating, found that Morris had chopped the man with whom he had been arguing with earlier, and was attempting to escape. The man told Morris’s mother that his fellow miners pursued, caught, and tied Morris to a tree before beating him. As a result, Morris was said to have received head injuries, and was being brought of the area.
Meanwhile, the man who Morris allegedly chopped was placed on a tractor and was also being taken to a nearby hospital when he bled to death.
When Stabroek News spoke to the man who relayed the story to Morris’s family last night, he asked to remain anonymous, but stated that although he was in Georgetown, he was called by the General Manager (GM) of the dredge at which the incident occurred, and provided with the information surrounding Morris’s situation.
He claimed Morris had left the dredge he was with and gone to work on another dredge because “things were not going too good”.
He said the information was given to him on Monday night and he decided to convey the message to Morris’s family. The man maintained that when he spoke to the GM on Monday, he was informed that “they were carrying Michael out”; he said he was told nothing of Morris being dead.
Police said efforts are being made to have Morris’s body brought out to Bartica.
