Murdered Guyanese Ruis `Kenny’ Mentore was badly beaten and stabbed by a gang of about 25 young men, according to his mother, who said that after viewing his battered body she knew that he would not survive.
A grief-stricken Joan Conway told Stabroek News yesterday from Grenada where the incident occurred on Christmas Day, that her son was partying with a girl and this was what sparked the attack. She said the island is a “nice place” but gangs are rampant.
She recounted that her son went to a party at Fox Inn which is a short distance from her home in Grand Anse. She recalled that during the wee hours of Christmas Day her son returned home from a party he had earlier attended with a friend. She said that as she prepared to leave home sometime after 5 am for her janitor job at the island’s airport, she called out to him but got no response. She said she wanted to upbraid him about the clothing he had thrown on the floor. Before she could leave her home, she was informed of the incident and rushed to the scene where she found her battered and bloodied son, who was calling out for water.
Conway said she would later learn that while at the party, her son was with a girl when a man approached him and “box him up.” She said it would appear that Mentore went home, picked up her “brand new” knife and went back to the party spot to confront the man. She said Mentore, who also worked at the airport as a janitor, was then attacked by about 25 gang members, who beat and stabbed him. She said that during the beating one of them “take a big block and pelt him in his head.” She said too that there was a “hole” in his foot which was reportedly inflicted with a broken bottle. She said he also had numerous stab wounds to his body.
Conway said her son fought back as he was able to stab two of the attackers; one of whom has been detained.
Mentore was taken to the St George’s General Hospital and from the onset the doctor told her that he had a slim chance of surviving. “She [the doctor] told me to pray,” she recalled
The woman said that when she saw her son’s body in the operating theatre on Christmas morning, it was badly swollen. “Everywhere swell up big big big. I could hardly recognize meh child. I knew then that he would not have survived,” a distraught Conway told Stabroek News.
She said that following the autopsy which was conducted on Friday it was revealed that he died of haemorrhage. “De doctor say that he lose all he blood in he body”, she said adding that it would appear that it was the injury to his foot that resulted in him bleeding to death as a vein was believed to have been severed.
Conway said she has been in touch with the police but she has to wait until the autopsy results go before the judge. She explained that homicide cases are treated differently in Grenada when compared to Guyana.
She said the judge has to be satisfied with the autopsy results and that the persons died as a result of injuries inflicted by another.
She said that at the moment “it is a police matter” and she has to wait. She said she is unsure whether she will get justice especially in light of the fact that Mentore was a foreigner. “I am not sure about justice. I just waiting to see,” she said adding that the police are yet to take a statement from her.
She said too that as of now her son’s remains belong to the state and would not be handed over to her until after the hearing before the judge.
Mentore, a father of one, is a resident of Mahaicony. He left Guyana for Grenada where his mother has been living and working for the past 10 years, on July 28. Conway told Stabroek News that he was given a six-months stay in the country and while he had up to the end of January to leave, she had already purchased a ticket for January 13 for him. She said that his employers would have been awaiting his return to the island to continue his job at the airport.
She said he hardly had friends on the island and would usually keep to himself. She said she repeatedly told him to keep away from bad company.
Prior to his death, she said, he never complained about any problems with anyone. The young woman at the centre of the incident, she said was known to him.
Conway said the death has affected her tremendously; Mentore was the last of her four sons.
Asked about burial plans, she said that at the moment she is looking to return the body to Guyana. “I will bring home my child,” she said adding that her employer has been very supportive throughout this difficult time. She recalled too that his employers had wanted him to work during the holiday period but he insisted that he wanted Christmas Day and Boxing Day off.
