By Mario Joseph
A man was beaten to death after he allegedly robbed a woman yesterday morning at Samantha Point, Grove, East Bank Demerara.
Although police say Eldon Sampson, 24, of Old Road, Craig, East Bank Demerara, was found battered on a road in the village, residents said he was beaten by a group of men who later took him to the Grove Police Station in the trunk of a car belonging to one of his assailants.
According to the police, Sampson was found with multiple injuries at about 10:45am on the road and was later pronounced dead at the Diamond Diagnostic Centre. “A bag containing $50,000, a cell phone and a laptop computer that were reported stolen earlier from a female resident were recovered by the police, along with a bicycle and a knife,” police said. Sampson was recently released from prison after serving a sentence for armed robbery, police also reported.
At Grove, however, residents recounted that around 9am Sampson, who was riding a bicycle, attacked a woman and robbed her. He was subsequently swarmed by a group of men, who beat him until he was no longer moving and took him to the Grove Police Station in the car trunk.
The father of the deceased, Elvis Sampson, said that he was at home doing some construction work when he received a call from someone who informed him that his son was being beaten in Grove. He added that he didn’t think too much of it because Eldon told him that he was going to see a friend. However, he later received a call from the police, who instructed him to go identify his son’s body at the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, where doctors told him that he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The senior Sampson mentioned that the police told him that they have to charge the men who beat his son with murder, whether he had committed a crime or not.
He said the main person has been identified to him as a man known as “Pumpkin” or “Dogman.” “Pumpkin kill me son! He knock he down and break he ribs and fracture he skull,” the upset man said.
He noted that his son, whom he confirmed was released from prison in early July for crimes similar to the one he was accused of committing yesterday, had left home at approximately 8am. He was to return shortly to mix cement for the construction project at his father’s home. He added that the news of his son’s death came as a shock and he was afraid to tell his wife because of her hypertension and his fear that the loss would devastate her.
