Berbice youth chopped to death, another hospitalised during row over cellphone

An old grievance over a cell phone led to the chopping to death of a youth at Angoy’s Avenue in New Amsterdam, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), in the wee hours of Sunday.
Twenty-two-year-old Kevin Small Jr of Patrick Dam, Mount Sinai (Angoy’s Avenue) was fatally chopped while another young man whose name was not immediately known is hospitalised.

Dead: Kevin Small Jr

Based on reports received, the men were involved in a fight on Friday evening following an argument over a mobile phone.
While information remains sketchy, Police Commander Shivpersaud Bacchus confirmed that there was a fight involving several youths in the community which resulted in at least two persons being wounded – one being fatal.
“At this time what we can say is that one of the victims is at New Amsterdam Public Hospital and the other one, his body was discovered at a home not too long ago and we are visiting the scene to see what actually transpired,” the Commander told the media.
The dead man’s father, Kevin Small Snr, explained that his son and others were at a shop in the community on Saturday evening playing games when three other young men armed with cutlasses entered the business place.
“My son don’t lime there but they come there looking for other people who they say ‘names calling’. They see me and say ‘look he father deh here’ but nobody ain’t try doing me nothing. This morning I get up early because he does sleep upstairs by his mother, get up early to tell he wha going on and me ain’t see he.”
The aggrieved father explained that he left for work but on his way home, he was informed that his son was chopped.

The body of Small being removed by undertakers on Sunday morning

“I ask them where he is and nobody could give an account where he deh. So we launch a search and when we come down at the back here, we see he. He does deh in that house – is one of his friend houses he does rest; he doesn’t live there though. They see him brace up at the back on the wall, he didn’t fully dead. He went bleeding and they put he to lie down on the sheet and that is where he pass out,” the father related.
Meanwhile, the injured man was found in an abandoned house tucked away in bushes at Budhan Scheme, Vryheid, which is the neighbouring community. According to Small, a cellular phone was misplaced and his son was accused of stealing it.
“From there the problem start [the] night before the last,” he indicated. Police have so far taken one person into custody as the investigations continue.