A 15-year-old was fatally stabbed during an argument at Plaisance, East Coast Demerara (ECD) on Thursday afternoon and the suspect, who is a relative, has been arrested.
Dead is Derril Wong, a student of Cumming’s Lodge Secondary School and of Lot 42 Rabbit Road, Sparendaam, ECD.
Police spokesman (ag) Shivpersaud Bacchus yesterday confirmed the fatal stabbing, which occurred around 4 pm at Graham Street, Plaisance.
He said the suspect, a 17-year-old, is currently in police custody assisting with the investigation.
The police, in a press release, said Wong and the suspect had an argument and Wong was later found with stab wounds about his body. He was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he subsequently died.
Orleen Holder, Wong’s grandmother, said she would normally “keep a close eye” on him just so he would not get involved in any trouble.
“…I does gah fah stay on meh alert with he because yuh know he like fight and so, the young blood, so I does try fah keep he in,” she noted.
Holder explained that on Thursday afternoon, Wong left home after she fell asleep.
“…He (Wong) talk meh out like and ah fall asleep and he get away… So when ah open meh eyes now, I run in the kitchen, ah looking. ‘Derril! Derril!’ No answer. Ah seh ‘Oh god, he gone,’” Holder said.
A short while after, Holder recalled hearing a man calling out for her.
“…I hearing ‘Inside, inside’… Hear he: ‘You is Derril grandmother?’ Ah seh yeah. Hear he: ‘Derril dead.’ Just so. I seh, ‘Bai don’t mek them jokes, bai’ and he get up and he go away,” Holder related.
She said that a neighbour offered to take her to the scene. “When ah go, they done put he in the ambulance… like he was on and off,” she said.
Holder explained that based on what she understands, Derril went to the suspect’s house to visit his sister when the altercation unfolded. “…So he [Wong] was going in the yard to her [suspect sister] and the bai that stab him said to him ‘Yuh get ban from this yard bai. Yuh can’ come in this yard’. But he [Derril] insist and he still go,” Holder stated.
She said a scuffle then ensued and Wong was stabbed.
Holder further noted that at the scene, the suspect reportedly told the police that Derril initially armed himself with a wood and struck him.
He claimed his actions were self-defence. Holder said. “He [suspect] saying Derril pick up and a wood and lash he on he hand and he had to [defend himself] because if he didn’t kill Derril, Derril woulda kill he,” Holder said.
She added that Derril was stabbed twice to his back. ‘So yuh could see like he [Derril] was going out the yard and he [suspect] go behind and juk he. Bleed to death,” Holder noted.
She said doctors tried their best to save Wong but he lost a lot of blood.
Derril has been living with Holder since birth.
