A scrap iron dealer’s tragic death caused chaos outside the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) yesterday as a fight broke out among feuding relatives.
Dead is Ryan Jones, 27, of 68 Barr Street, Albouystown, who had left his home to go for an afternoon swim in the ‘Blacka’ (Lamaha Canal) with five friends.
According to an eyewitness, Jones took his first plunge into the canal and did not resurface. After a while, the friends who were with Jones realized something was wrong and went into full search mode. They found him after searching the water for about five minutes and rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. This all occurred around 2 pm yesterday, the witness said.
As news of Jones’s death spread, relatives converged outside the GPH’s Accident and Emergency Unit. Some were mourning, while others seemed to be rejoicing. A fight subsequently broke out and they were asked to leave by security.
When Stabroek News spoke to Jones’s reputed wife, she said there was a legal matter that was dismissed at the Wales Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. “On the court day when we win the case, when they were coming down the step, their words were ‘I hope y’all don’t spend de bail money wild because y’all have to keep it for funeral bills.’”
These words, she said, came from two of her aunts.
According to her, Jones had been charged with robbing her aunt’s home in Parfait Harmonie on the West Demerara. She said Jones won the case because of inconsistencies in the evidence that was provided by the complainants.
The reputed wife said the relatives who were happy at Jones’s demise, shouted out, “Yes we glad he dead, we can finally sleep good at nights!” while at the hospital. She also said that the relatives had left their West Demerara home to come to Georgetown to make sure that Jones was actually dead.
“That boy neck break. I mean my family have to know what they do. I know what they are capable of doing,” the wife said. “I grew up with them so I know just what they are capable of.”
According to the mother of Jones’s three-year-old child, her husband was a great swimmer. “His death by drowning is unusual to me,” the grief-stricken woman said. “He could swim! Almost every morning we go on the seawall and he swim in high tide so when I hear he break his neck, it is not real.”
A police source told Stabroek News that when Jones was pronounced dead at the hospital, his body bore no indications of foul play or marks of violence.
