A 22-year-old fisherman was fatally stabbed outside his Met-en-meerzorg, West Coast Demerara home on Sunday evening and a fellow villager who is said to be responsible is being sought by the police.
Noel Singh sustained multiple stab wounds about his body, including to the region of his heart, during the attack, which took place around 8 pm on Sunday outside his Lot 33 Met-en-meerzorg home.
He was rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The suspect, who has been identified by the police as a 20-year-old resident of Ocean Garden, Met-en-meerzorg, fled the scene and was yet to be apprehended up to last night.
The Regional Commander, Senior Superintendent Linden Lord, told Stabroek News that the police were up to yesterday afternoon combing the area and its environs for the suspect.
The police, in a press release, said enquiries revealed that Singh and the suspect had a misunderstanding about six days ago and Singh was allegedly assaulted by him.
On Sunday evening, the police said, they had an argument during which Singh was stabbed.
When Stabroek News visited the dead man’s home yesterday, his family members and friends were present in their numbers as they prepared for his wake.
They broke down in tears as they recounted what transpired on Sunday.
Reaad Mohammed, one of Singh’s friends, said he was heading to a nearby shop when he noticed the suspect running towards him.
Mohammed alleged that the suspect had attacked him several times in the past and so out of fear he rushed back to his home.
After the man fled, Mohammed added, he then noticed Singh lying near a drain in front his home, covered in mud. He had already been stabbed.
“I was walking on the road and all I see this boy (suspect) running, coming towards me and I try to run home back because he attack me nuff time already so I just go home back….when I look back when he done pass me, I see me friend (Singh) on the road lying, panting fah breathe. He was already stabbed,” Mohammed explained.
Mohamed said that he would normally hang out with Singh on the evenings but upon his return from work Sunday afternoon his mother warned him not to go on the road since someone was “dragging” a knife on the road earlier in the day.
“So I end up seh no me ain’t going pun the road, I going to the shop because I come out pun the road and watch but the road was clear but like this guy (suspect) was hiding…so I seh alright I will go to the shop because I ain’t see nobody. So whilst I was going to the shop, he (suspect) running coming. So I see a person running, so I thought like you know was he and he brother them in an argument or something. So I leave he let he runaway,” Mohammed further explained.
“So when I watch around now, I see my friend crawl, reach pun the road. So he done went in the drain and he come out…When I watch I can’t recognise he because was so much mud on him. He couldn’t even talk,” Mohammed cried.
He said he and Singh’s brothers quickly called a taxi to transport him to the hospital.
The dead man’s father, Dennis Singh, said he was relaxing in the yard when his sons alerted him that Noel had been stabbed.
“When me guh see am, he helpless. He even can talk when me go see am,” Dennis said.
Nesha Singh, Noel’s mother, who lives at a separate address in the same street, said she last saw her son alive on Sunday, when he passed by her house in the company of one of his brothers. She rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital after learning of the stabbing but Singh had died already by the time she arrived.
Meanwhile, a neighbour, who wished not to be named, told Stabroek News that whenever Noel returned from sea he and his family would normally have a “get together.”
On Sunday night, the woman said she saw the suspect sitting in front Noel’s house.
“….After he (suspect) sit down deh and dah bai (Noel) go in inside deh and he come out back, the problem start and all two ah them fall in the drain and when them fall in, and then them start and he get stab,” the woman said.
`Troublemakers’
Residents of the area and relatives of the dead man said the suspect would often roam the area with a group of other boys who they deemed as “troublemakers.”
A neighbour told Stabroek News that the suspect and his friends would drink together at a shop in the community and when they are intoxicated they molest residents.
“Them does always come at the place hay and mek problem with people around this place… And like when this man hay (Dennis) got he lil get together, them does wan go in deh because the son them and them ah friend, through them ah wuk ah river. And because the daddy don’t let them go in the yard is a problem. They does want break down the man gate, they does want go in, tek advantage pun the people. So ah dah what them do last night (Sunday) and dah cause the problem,” the neighbour explained.
“I know them well. Them always come at this place hay and mek interference until this thing happen,” she added.
Mohamed said the suspect and his friends would also walk the streets late in the nights and cause trouble.
“When they drink and they walk late and they see they want pick a trouble, they does pick on anybody. So they does come at the back hay most ah the time fah pick trouble with people at the back hay. He (suspect) does come and when his (Singh) father lock his gate, he does want to mek a fight, pelt bottle all in this yard hay. He troublesome. Is five, six of them sometime does come at the back hay,” Mohammed noted.
Meanwhile, Dennis said some time ago the group scaled his fence and attacked him. “One time just suh all ah them rush in, nuff ah them. When they see yuh them ah rush in and pick yuh pocket and thing and them ah guh out. Ah one gang ah them ah do this wuk,” he said.
Nesha recalled seeing the suspect and a friend in the area earlier in the day prior to the stabbing. She said they had knives in their possession but she wasn’t sure what they were up to.
“He (suspect) always in the street… he always ah walk this street with knife in he hand. He and he friend them always with knife in them hand. Yesterday (Sunday) me saw them in the street with knife but me nah know what them up to… me nah know ah dah them go do,” she noted.
Noel returned from the sea on Friday and was scheduled to return yesterday.
Relatives described him as a hardworking individual who did not interfere with anyone.
