Two persons from the gay community were early yesterday morning brutally stabbed to death at separate city locations by a man who later confessed to the killings and committed suicide by torching himself.
On his deathbed after setting himself afire, Samuel Bristol, 31, of Nabaclis, East Coast Demerara reportedly confessed to killing Carlyle Sinclair of Vergenoegen and Jason John Samuel, 23, of Alberttown. Bristol died after he doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself alight shortly after stabbing the duo.
Police, in a statement, said that the bodies of Samuel and Sinclair were found with stab wounds to the chest on Leopold Street and Lombard Street, Georgetown, respectively.
Police from the Stabroek Market Outpost and Brickdam Police Station, responding to a report of a stabbing on Lombard Street, found Sinclair lying on the sidewalk with multiple stab wounds. A few minutes later, there was another report that a body was lying in a pool of blood on Leopold Street about 20 feet from High Street. There, Samuels’s body was found. Sex workers from various parts of the city converged at both scenes.
It was only later in the morning, around 6am, that it was found out that Bristol was the jilted ex-partner of one of their colleagues and was angry because the relationship had been broken off. At the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) yesterday morning, Bristol’s ex –partner Romario Lovell detailed to reporters, years of abuse at the hands of his ex. He said that he broke off the monogamous relationship with Bristol and began working as a commercial sex worker nightly.
Bristol, he said, was angry that the relationship ended and would frequent the location and not only incessantly beg for Lovell to take him back but would berate him because he had turned to prostitution. This, however, did not scare Lovell who said that he was comfortable with the decision he made in leaving and was also proud of his job.
One sex worker from near the St George’s Cathedral told Stabroek News at the scene yesterday that the two murdered men were not linked nor did they share a relationship. The duo knew each other and would work in the same area and, as such, were friends as the community shares a close bond. The sex worker said that there was no known rivalry between the dead duo.
Further, the woman related that late Saturday night, there was an argument between a man, said to be Bristol, and one of her co-workers at the St George’s Cathedral location where she had to intervene and the fuming man left, threatening to kill everyone. The man at the time had a flammable liquid in a bottle and attempted to douse some of the workers at the location with it.
The alleged killer’s plan at the Cathedral was thwarted when other sex workers responded to screams by their colleagues. “We hear de commotion and run fuh help…I ain’t going to lie to you, we get vex vex because is time this stupidness done, someone always coming out here and interfering with us so all ah we rush he but is some MMC save he or was blows galore,” one sex worker stated.
Stabroek News was told that the MMC crew rescued the man from the Cathedral while he was sprinting away from the group of angry sex workers. He then asked to be dropped off at the Ashmin’s Store on High Street as he explained that he would take a taxi home from the nearby car park. The gay man recalled that after the MMC vehicle sped off with the man, they returned to their posts believing that was the end of the night’s ordeal.
However, it seemed that he was still incensed and when he saw the two gay men took it upon himself to kill them.
The sex workers told Stabroek News that about half an hour later, they received word that one of their friends was brutally killed. When they arrived at the scene, they learnt that another had also died at the hands of the same man. Carrying out their own investigation at the crime scene, the friends said that they realized that the description given of the person seen fleeing the area was that of the person who had also earlier fled from them. The group opined that Samuel was the first to be killed and Sinclair upon witnessing the man with the knife, ran west into Lombard Street but was too slow to find shelter as his attacker caught up with him stabbing him multiple times before escaping.
They have related the sequence of events to the police. Persons living in the area where the killings occurred told Stabroek News that they heard no unusual sounds or screams during the night. One resident said that he found it strange that no screams were heard as Leopold Street was home to several Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LBGT) persons and they normally would “look out” for each other.
As such, if one felt threatened, a cry for help would see many persons rushing to render assistance. The police questioned several persons yesterday as their investigations continue. It was pointed out that there are CCTV cameras near to the location of the murders but that it is unclear if they are working as most are not.
The two stabbed men were described by friends as kind and hardworking who never got into altercations. Dozens of sex workers were present at the scene lamenting the shocking deaths. A close friend of Sinclair fainted before she saw the body as blood had begun to wash the Leopold Street area.
Staff at the GPH said the badly burnt Samuel was rushed to the institution around 6am and while being attended to, loudly confessed to the killings claiming he had nothing else to live for.
A taxi driver at the Bourda market, Albert Roberts, told Stabroek News that it was after 5am that they saw a man engulfed in flames close to Orange Walk and Regent Street. Persons from the market began dousing the man with water and took him to the nearby constabulary outpost for help. There, an ambulance was summoned and he was taken to the GPH.
The alleged killer’s parents were in shock upon learning of the circumstances under which their son died.
Bristol’s father Dunstan Bristol, told Stabroek News from their Nabaclis home that he was not aware that his son was gay. He said that the former employee of Waterchris Restaurant was an ardent member of the community’s Wesleyan Church.
The man said he did not have all the facts surrounding the killings and did not want to comment in detail until he learnt the facts.
Church members and village residents described the dead Bristol as a very “staunch Christian” and said that they too are struggling to come to grips with the circumstances of his death.
