The mother of Rickford Newton, the youth who succumbed last after allegedly suffering an injury during a football game, believes that he was a victim of foul play due to the severity of his injuries.
“I believe that it got more side in this thing… I calling for action and justice. The story ain’t going down like that,” a distraught Carol Newton yesterday told Sunday Stabroek.
Rickford, 19, a miner of Byderabo Road, Bartica, succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) around 3 pm last Tuesday.
According to the police, their investigations revealed that that around 1 pm on Friday, July 3rd, Rickford and other miners were playing football at Armu Backdam, Cuyuni River, when it is claimed that he jumped to receive the ball and injured himself.
He was escorted to the Bartica Hospital, where he was treated, then subsequently transferred to the GPH, where he died.
Whist hospitalised, an MRI showed that Rickford had suffered a fractured skull, neck, and hand.
An autopsy conducted on Friday revealed that he died as a result of a fractured spine.
Police Commander of Region Seven Linden Lord yesterday told Sunday Stabroek that a police investigation is ongoing.
Lord said that the police are aware of his family, suspicions and added that a number of persons have since been questioned.
Lord noted that a team of ranks were dispatched to the scene. They are expected to be back by this afternoon.
Speaking to this newspaper yesterday, Carol Newton said that she had been alerted by the Bartica Hospital about her son’s injuries.
“The doctor seh that how he neck fracture, he spine break, he hand bruk up, he get fracture in he foot. Everything paralysed fah me son, everything,” Carol said.
She added that she was told that it was Rickford’s employer and others who took him to the hospital and left him there.
Carol said she does not believe the claim that her son suffered the fatal injuries during a football game. “They saying is some football game he get injured in but I don’t believe this at all,” she declared, while calling her son’s death rather suspicious.
Since Rickford’s death, Carol said she has not heard or seen her son’s employer.
She noted that some time ago, Rickford related to her that he had been working for his employer but was not being paid. “Me son seh that he had to get money and he ain’t getting it,” the woman noted.
The woman further related that while Rickford was in the hospital, she tried to ask what transpired but she did not manage to get any information from him due to his condition. “Same time me son go fah talk, he close he eye right deh,” she said.
