A push cart operator was stabbed to death on Saturday night following an altercation with a woman over $1,000.
Police say that Percival Williams, 43, who resides at Parika, East Bank Essequibo, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Leonora Cottage Hospital after he was stabbed to the chest by a female assailant around 19:00 hrs.
The alleged assailant is a 23-year-old mother of one. According to a police release, “Williams and a woman had an argument over $1,000 which she had allegedly given to him to purchase a meal for her, and which he converted to his own use. During the argument, he was stabbed to his chest by the woman.”
Williams was reportedly given money over a week ago to purchase food for the woman but he never returned with the food or the money. The woman’s husband said that he was not around when the incident occurred but that when he finally got home he was told by a friend that his wife just “bore” a man. When he finally saw his wife, he said, she asked him to get a taxi to take Williams to the hospital. The woman reportedly told her husband that she confronted Williams about the money and he (Williams) responded disrespectfully, which started the scuffle which ended in him being stabbed.
But she told her husband she was not the one who stabbed him, as the police are alleging. Instead, the woman told her husband that during the scuffle, Williams slipped and fell on the knife which he had in his waist.
Another version of what transpired was told by a man who said he was an eyewitness. The man, who identified himself as “Boogsy,” said that Williams was indeed the owner of the knife by which he died, but he said that Williams did not slip and fall on the knife. “Boogsy” said that when the scuffle began Williams handed him the knife to keep. The woman, however, he said, managed to get the knife from him and stab Williams.
Stabroek News spoke to the alleged assailant’s sister yesterday who said that she and her husband were taken into custody at the Parika Police Station although they had nothing to do with the incident.
The woman said that around midnight on Saturday the police forced their way into her home and told her that she, her husband, and her sister were involved in Williams’ stabbing, and therefore had to be taken into custody. By this time, the accused assailant had already left to take Williams to the hospital.
The assailant’s sister said that when she and her husband arrived at the police station they explained to the officers that they were not the ones responsible for the murder and they did not know who the culprit was.
But the police would not let up, she said, and in their bid to solicit the response they were looking for, they allegedly put her and her husband to kneel on bottle caps. In addition to being made to kneel on bottle caps, she said that her husband was slapped and lashed to his face by the police during the interrogation.
After both of them maintained they did not know who was responsible, they were released sometime yesterday morning. Stabroek News visited the Parika Police Station to speak with the police officers who handled the incident but was told that they were not on the day shift, and calls to Police PRO Ivelaw Whittaker went unanswered.
The husband of the alleged assailant said that after the two of them took Williams to the hospital he advised her to turn herself into the police as soon as possible. The woman reportedly told her husband though, that she would do so on Sunday morning since she wanted to stay the night with her son.
By 01:00 hrs though, the police went to the alleged’s assailant’s house and took her into custody.
Williams was described by those who knew him as a good, quiet man. One friend said that Williams had been given several opportunities by his “well off” relatives to leave Parika and his job as a push cart driver. The man never wanted to leave though, his friend said, and though he would leave for a few days he would always return.
