A West Coast Berbice (WCB) man was on Saturday evening fatally beaten while his son sustained head and other injuries after they were attacked by five villagers from a nearby village who claimed that the older man had broken into their house and stolen jewellery.
Dead is Bheim Evans, 54, a labourer. His son, Tishan Persaud, 21, a labourer was injured. They both are from Number 11 Village, WCB. Persaud sustained injuries to his left arm, head and back.
Two suspects are in police custody for questioning, while investigators are searching for the others identified by Persaud to be residents of Number 12 Village, WCB
Persaud told Stabroek News yesterday that he went to a club in Bath Settlement, WCB, and while he was heading over to his sister’s house, the group of five men approached him. “Them snatch me and start to beat me with cutlass, rope and chain”, the injured man relayed.
According to him, the men continued to beat him until his father arrived. “When my father come them say is my father them want and is me father went in one of them house and take a chain and silver chain, gold chain and eight gold ring and them start to beat him.”
Persaud said that at that point the group of men continuously beat both him and his father but after they realized that his father had become unconscious they ordered him to assist them to remove his father’s body from the area.
“Them beat de man bad and kick him in the face and bruk one of his ribs. Them done beat my father and them take my father and carry him in front a lady house and she start fight that them can’t put he there and them beat me fa heist my father and carry he another place”, Persaud said.
According to him, the attackers told him to take his father home but after they left he rushed to the Fort Wellington Police Station and returned with lawmen who carried his father to the Fort Wellington Public Hospital.
Evans, a father of 12, died while receiving treatment at the hospital.
Evans had spent time in jail on various charges. He was last year released from prison after he completed his sentences for two counts of wounding with intent.
In 2018, Evans, who was already serving a 10-year sentence for wounding with intent, had then pleaded guilty to wounding Price Ramoo.
On the day of the attack, Ramoo was standing at a corner along Black Wall Street, D’Edward Village, West Coast Berbice, when he and Evans’ son got into a misunderstanding. Subsequently, Evans turned up at the scene, armed with a knife, and he stabbed Ramoo several times. Evans then left the scene and returned moments later armed with a cutlass. However, Ramoo hid until Evans left again.
Ramoo reportedly then came out of his hiding place and collapsed. He was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital, after which he was then transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital, where he was admitted for some time.
In 2013, Evans was charged with murdering Jaipaul Sampooran, at Number 11 Village, West Coast Berbice. However, that charge was dismissed in 2015. Evans claimed that he had acted in self-defence.
Evans had told investigators that he was at a wedding house when a man not known to him accused him of stealing his bicycle. A fight ensued during which Evans lashed the man three times with a piece of wood which resulted in his death.
Later, in November, 2015, Evans was charged with attempting to murder Neil Kalamudeen at Woodley Park, West Coast Berbice. He was committed to stand trial for the attempted murder in July, 2016, by Magistrate Rhondell Weaver, at the conclusion of a Preliminary Inquiry into the charge.
In October, 2017, Evans was sentenced to 10 years in jail by Justice Jo-Ann Barlow at the High Court in Berbice after he pleaded guilty to wounding Kalamudeen with intent.
Persaud yesterday told Stabroek News that after his father was released from prison last year, he told his children that he wanted to turn his life around. “He say he done he na go do back nothing, he fall in age and he na get nobody”, his son noted.
According to Persaud, his father is well known in the community as he works with most of the farmers. “He and everybody alright.”
He said that one of the attackers is known to family and they are confused how they could have accused his father as he insisted that “he (father) ain’t went in nobody house. He ain’t know nothing.”
