A labourer was yesterday afternoon stabbed to death at Bagots-town, East Bank Demerara (EBD), following an argument with another man over water.
Mark Ifill, called ‘Yankee,’ 42, of Bagotstown, reportedly died on the spot where he was allegedly attacked at Water Street, by Sheldon Bowen, 41, called ‘Muslim,’ who is now in police custody.
Stabroek News was told that at around 11 am yesterday, Ifill got into an argument with Bowen, who told him to stop filling water from his pipe. Ifill reportedly ignored the command and as a result an argument ensued between the two men and it ended in the fatal stabbing.
Police, in a statement issued yesterday, said the two men had a heated altercation over Ifill’s removal of water from a pipe in the suspect’s yard. As a result, they fought and the suspect dealt Ifill a blow to his head with an object, then went away after they were parted by public-spirited persons. Police added that the suspect returned minutes later with a knife and stabbed Ifill to his chest, causing him to run and collapse a short distance away. A team of medical personnel from the Georgetown Public Hospital responded and pronounced Ifill dead.
“Yankee went to full water and Muslim come out and tell he, he can’t full water because a disconnecting crew coming around but he still insist to full the water,” an eyewitness, who asked not to be named, told Stabroek News.
She added that after Ifill insisted on
filling his containers, Bowen ran into his house, collected a gun and returned. Upset that Ifill did not listen to his instructions, she said, Bowen hit the man in his face. Ifill, the eyewitness recounted, challenged Bowen to fight after noticing that the magazine was empty when it fell from the gun. She noted that the two men fought for approximately 10 minutes before they were later parted by neighbours.
“A man name John come out and part them and tell them take a break. They hold back Yankee and Muslim was advancing but a neighbour pull him back in the track. Then inspector wife hold he and tell he ‘yuh get yuh wife and children to live for; he ain’t get nobody’ but he still insisted and charged at Yankee,” the eyewitness recounted.
She added that although the men were separated, they were still involved in a heated argument, during which Bowen dared Ifill to “come back and full water if yuh bad.” She said Ifill ignored the dare and told the man “a rusty gun you come fighting with. I want yuh come fight hand to hand.”
The eyewitness said Bowen did not reply and went home. Neighbours, she noted, believed that the brawl was over after he went away. However, Bowen returned from a different passageway with a weapon and charged at Ifill. Ifill, after seeing his attacker returning, pushed aside a wheelbarrow with his water containers and picked up a piece a wood to defend himself.
“Muslim took out the knife and charge to he and he used the piece of wood to bar himself and tried to lash out the knife… but Muslim hold on to the knife,” the woman detailed.
As Ifill attempted to defend himself, he fell and Bowen reportedly seized the opportunity to inflict injuries. In the midst of being attacked, Ifill, the eyewitness recalled, tried to get up and was stabbed to his chest.
“When he got juk, Yankee holler ‘Ow gawd! Y’all call the ambulance!’ and he run from where he get bore and fall not far from where he get bore. When he fall, he was gasping for breath and was bleeding,” the woman said.
She explained that by the time the Emergency Medical Technicians arrived at the scene, Ifill had already succumbed. She noted that the ambulance took approximately half an hour to respond.
The suspect’s wife, Michelle (only name given), told this newspaper that she was at home when the confrontation occurred. The woman, who is pregnant with the couple’s sixth child, explained that she was told that the fight broke out after Ifill refused to comply with the instructions given to him by her husband, who had asked him to desist from using their pipe.
