A brutal attack by a gang of men on Saturday night claimed the life of a Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara (ECD) mason and left a shop owner with damage in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Persons who witnessed the act believe if the police had responded promptly the victim’s life could have been saved.
Troy Hicks, 45, of North Beterverwagting, ECD is the man who died.
Hicks, Stabroek News learnt was attacked just around 7 pm as he was walking through Hendricks Street. According to reports, Saturday’s attack is believed to have been in retaliation for a scuffle on Friday night, between Hicks and another individual, who is now hospitalised. It is unclear what prompted the dispute.
Hicks’ common-law wife Jacklyn Powley yesterday told this newspaper that he told her on Friday that he had been involved in a confrontation where an individual attacked him with a piece of wood. At that time he related to her that there were four other men who attempted to beat him but he managed to escape.
“When he reach home I ask he what happen, he tell me ‘this nonsense gotta stop everybody just hitting me and when I go to the station I ain’t getting no results’ and he will have to take matters into his own hands,” Powley related.
She said that she advised him to go to the station but he declined. She stated that on Saturday afternoon, he informed her that he was heading back into the village but she said she did not think for a second his return there meant his demise.
An eyewitness and the shop owner, Marylyn Ault told this newspaper that as Hicks was walking through the street around 7 pm, a man who was hiding behind a garbage bin next to her shop, sprang out at him and launched a cutlass attack.
“He realised it was too much and he run to my shop for rescue but before he run into my shop, he pull out a cutlass from his waist and started to chop the boy that attack him. But the boy (attacker) crew run and come and started to attack he and he run in my shop and he started to throw things from my shop at them and they throw at he and so…” the woman recalled.
According to Ault, at the time she was preparing food for sale and a friend was with her. When Hicks rushed into the shop, she stated that they were trapped and despite screaming for help persons on the outside could not have immediately assisted.
“They couldn’t do nothing because the men on the outside were pelting him and he was taking things from the shop and shying at them… he had a cutlass and was in front of we and he keep telling us `call the (expletive) police! call the (expletive) police!’ and we pleaded with to calm down that we would call but by then the men start shying bricks and bottle and bicycle,” she recounted.
The woman said she kept calling the police but they kept saying there was no vehicle and no officer available.
“The station is right at the head of the road and I keep telling the lady on the phone that when y’all reach here y’all gone pick up a dead man and indeed they pick up a dead man,” she said.
The woman stated that at the height of the commotion, some boys had to remove the glass case from her shop, creating an exit for her and her friend to escape.
Still traumatised from the brawl, she said that after they left the shop the situation took a turn for the worse as the gang began taking items such as chairs and benches and throwing them at Hicks. In retaliation she said Hicks picked up a pot with hot oil and was about to douse his attackers when someone threw a bicycle at him and caused the oil to spill on him and burn him.
“He somehow managed to escape and jump in a bus that was passing but the bus wasn’t going nowhere and the driver jumped after see what was happening. He (Troy) jumped out and ran up the road and that’s where I know they beat him like he is not human,” she recalled.
A resident told this newspaper that when Hicks ran away from the gang he attempted to escape through her yard but the gang caught him.
She stated that the men ran behind him and dragged him out from her yard and mercilessly dealt him blows about his body before throwing him in the trench. She stated that while he was in the trench the men used a piece of wood to keep him down. Some passers-by eventually pulled him out and he was left on the road until the police came.
The incident went on for an hour and the woman, too, complained that the police failed to respond in a timely fashion. In her calls she said she informed the rank about the seriousness of the attack but the rank kept telling her that there was no vehicle. In the resident’s view, given the close proximity of the station to the scene they could have walked and intervened.
According to Powley, sometime after 8 pm they were informed that Hicks was lying on the road. However, when her daughter rushed to the scene, she observed police taking him for medical attention.
“My grandson call my daughter and tell her that he was lying on the road bleeding and had some chops on his head. She tell me he was bleeding and it didn’t look like he go live… by time we get to the police station they tell we he dead on the way to the hospital at Ogle,” a grieving Powley stated.
Hicks’ body is currently at the Memorial Gardens Funeral Parlour awaiting a post-mortem examination.
