A 41-year-old man succumbed at a city hospital yesterday morning, two weeks after he was brutally beaten at his Mahaica, East Coast Demerara (ECD) home.
Dead is Romeo Roopnarine also known as ‘Flour Dan’ and ‘Rasta’, 41, of Supply, Mahaica, ECD.
Police Commander of Region 4C Khali Pareshram yesterday told Stabroek News that an investigation was conducted into the incident which occurred sometime between August 12 and 14.
Pareshram said a suspect, Linden McCurdy was subsequently arrested and was remanded to prison last Thursday after he was charged with attempted murder.
Now that Roopnarine has died, Pareshram added that further investigations will be conducted into the matter. McCurdy is likely to face a murder charge at the soonest.
During a telephone interview yesterday, Romeo’s brother, Romel Roopnarine told Stabroek News that neighbours reached out to the family on Friday, August 14th and related that they had not seen Romeo for days.
As such, Romel said he and an uncle journeyed to Mahaica where they discovered a badly beaten Romeo lying face down in his house. “When we first saw him his eyes was so swollen that he couldn’t even see…he was feeling around for stuff,” Romel said.
Romeo lived alone.
According to Romel, neighbours recalled hearing a commotion coming from the house the night before the discovery. They later reportedly saw a man leaving the yard with a bag containing items.
Romeo managed to relate to his relatives, bits of what took place. He also identified the perpetrator/s.
“We tried ask him what happen to him and who did this. He was in and out of consciousness but he was conscious enough to tell us that he wanted for you to go and bathe him, he wanted some water on his face and when my uncle asked him who did this to him, he identified the perpetrators,” Romel explained.
Romeo told his relatives that he was beaten by at least two individuals during an argument.
“I can’t say what was the nature of the argument….he was very out of it. He was talking yes. A little bit at a time. We took him downstairs, we bathe him, we called the ambulance,” Romel added.
While they were waiting on the ambulance to arrive, Romel said that Romeo suffered a seizure after which a relative rushed him to the hospital.
“….We took him back into the house while waiting on ambulance but he suffered a seizure and they took him to the hospital. His entire face and head and everything was swollen. He was complaining about a lot of pain in his chest. He said they beat him in his chest a lot,” Romel further explained.
Romeo was initially taken to the Mahaicony Hospital but was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) the said evening due to his condition.
At the GPH, Romel said doctors recommended a CT scan which showed that Romeo suffered several fractures to his face and internal bleeding in his brain. As a result, he had an emergency surgery on August 15th.
From then until his demise, Romeo was in and out of consciousness. He succumbed in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of the GPH around 1.30 am yesterday.
A post-mortem examination is scheduled for today.
