The relatives of 34-year-old Dannie ‘Rickey’ Persaud who was discovered dead in the upstairs of a wedding house believe that foul play may have been involved in the man’s death.
Murder was ruled out by the police as a result of the post-mortem examination as they reported that Persaud died of gastritis compounded by blunt trauma to the head.
As such, the suspect who was in police custody was released following the autopsy report.
The sister-in-law of the deceased who had found the man’s body recounted the eventful night. The woman said that while the wedding reception was still in swing, sometime around 10 pm, a passing police patrol stopped at the house and enquired whether they were in receipt of a pass to host the event. She said the pass was provided to the officers who then proceeded to tell them that the curfew started at 9:30 and they needed to shut down the reception.
She noted that they adhered to the police’s instructions and turned off the music adding that she then played music from her phone for the persons remaining at the house. The sister-in-law shared that sometime after, Persaud’s mother asked her not to play any more music and shortly after she stopped the music on her phone. She recalled the power going out about minutes to midnight. The woman said it was at this point she realised that the neighbouring houses had lights, and putting on her phone light she made her way upstairs to Persaud’s apartment to see about the main switch.
According to the relative, she was halfway up the stairs when she noticed that several of the panes from a kitchen window in the upstairs had been removed and because of this she alerted her husband, who is the brother of Persaud and who was downstairs at the time.
“Then he run to come up the step same time with me and I hear a sound from upstairs like a movement. He start calling now for his brother… I turn the lock but the lock won’t open so I stamp the door and the door fly open and a young man run out and run into me and my phone fall out my hand. Me and he had a scrambling and I manage to apprehend he. I had an electric wire and me and me husband tie he up with it. I tell me husband hold he so I could turn on the light…when I turn on the light switch and look to my left, there I see Rickey lying on the floor…” recounted the woman.
She said when she saw her brother-in-law on the ground, she assumed that he had passed out as he had been drinking earlier. The woman said at that point she turned to the man that was tied up and asked him if he had come to rob Rickey.
The woman added that they did not realise that Persaud was dead at the time. Her husband, she said, asked for persons to call the police to come and arrest the man who was found in the house. The police, she said, did not arrive until more than an hour later, after 2 on Sunday morning.
She said that while they were awaiting the police, several young men on the road started calling out to them to let the suspect go. When they refused do so, the youths got angry and started throwing bottles and bricks at them injuring her, Persaud’s mother, and her 12-year-old son in the process. The bottles also connected with a window and broke it.
When the police arrived, they, too, assumed that Persaud had passed out and while taking the suspect to the police station, also took the deceased to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
She said after they returned home, police arrested her husband and kept him in custody at the Parfaite Harmonie Police Station from where he was released the following day. The suspect was taken to the hospital for a medical examination for injuries supposedly sustained in the scuffle with the deceased’s sister-in-law. The relative added that though they enquired from the police why her husband was arrested, police have still not said anything to them.
She pointed out that the next day when she arrived at the hospital prior to the autopsy being conducted, she saw an open wound on the deceased’s forehead, above his left eye. The sister-in-law said she cannot recall whether there was a wound on his head before his body was removed from the house. She is requesting that police thoroughly investigate the matter.
Commander of Region 3, Senior Superintendent Errol Watts confirmed that the suspect who was handed over to them was released on self-bail following the autopsy report on Monday. And while the police have ruled out murder, the commander said that investigations are still ongoing.
