An Albouystown teen was fatally stabbed yesterday morning after an altercation with three older boys at his workplace.
Police have since arrested one of the three suspects in the murder of 16-year-old Jumal Lancelot Park, also known as ‘Cheerio’ and ‘Troy,’ of 162 Non Pareil Street, Albouystown, Georgetown.
According to a Guyana Police Force statement, Park was at work at the Wanita Wash Bay, located at Front Road, West Ruimveldt, where he was confronted by the teens, who are said to be ages 17, 18, and 19.
Aneisa Park, the distraught sister of the deceased, told Stabroek News that she received a call around 9.30 am yesterday about the attack.
Aneisa said she learnt that “The problem started because he has a little 15-year-old friend and one the boys [the suspects] slapped his friend. He turn and tell him that the youth man smaller than them and they shouldn’t [take] advantage of [him] like that ‘or else the next time, me and you gon get wrong’. The boy he said it to said, ‘Bet you I murder you’. He jump on he bike and go and bring he two other friends.”
Aneisa was told that when the three suspects returned, they began throwing bottles at her brother, who retaliated by throwing bricks at them. The suspects were then said to have scaled the fence and hit Park to his head with a 2×4 piece of wood before stabbing him twice. Park ran into nearby house situated at the side of the wash bay, where he collapsed on the kitchen floor.
The police stated that the owner of the house, who heard the commotion, went and stood at his southern door in a bid to prevent the suspects from entering the house but he was stabbed in his left wrist by the eldest of the suspects. They then fled.
Jumal was taken to the Georgetown Public Hos-pital (GPH), where he was pronounced dead by a doctor at 10.30 am. His body was checked and stab wounds to the left side of his chest and his upper right hand were discovered.
Aneisa noted that Jumal was the sixth of seven children and that he would have celebrated his birthday in two weeks. She added that they grew up in a single parent home, where she and her mother helped to raise her younger siblings. Her brother, she recalled, was a young man of little words. However, whenever he spoke, it was always something hilarious.
“He was always a hustler and always ambitious. He helped me with a lot of things in my house. Even though he used to go to Charlestown Secondary School, when he come home from school, he used to go and catch he hand. If he didn’t go and buy seeds for people, he would go at the baker shop and catch an afternoon work to wash pans. So the last work he get was at the car wash and he said he like the work so he stay there,” she said of her brother.
Jumal had been employed with the wash bay since earlier this year.
“He died on his friend’s lap while they were taking him to the hospital. He take his last breath while on Broad Street,” Aneisa said.
She added that Jumal had said to his family earlier this week that he was moving this weekend to Broad Street, where he had planned to rent a house.
“He always saying he get big now and want to go on he own, so he telling mommy that he can’t wait for this weekend meet so he could move out. So he move out deh now,” lamented the woman.
The sister further said that she was told that her brother and one of the suspects were friends some years ago but had a disagreement. “[The former friend] used to come in here like three years ago and they used to play fowl fight and they used to mind one another chicken and I think they had a falling out concerning the chicken,” she said.
The 18-year-old suspect was later captured by police. Efforts were being made by the police to arrest his two other accomplices.
