“If I had known” – wife says regrets answering back husband’s killer

Days after Mark Hilliman, a 25-year-old labourer from McDoom, East Bank Demerara, and also residing in La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, was stabbed to death by a man outside KFC at Longden and Croal Streets, Georgetown, his reputed wife expressed profound regret at how he died.
The woman, Diana Sampson, in an interview with Guyana Times on Tuesday, stated that her reputed husband was trying to make peace between her and the suspect on Saturday evening. She said she works at the KFC location, and her husband usually collected her from work.

According to the grieving woman, she was preparing to leave work when the suspect entered the fast-food outlet but became impatient since he had to wait to place his order. He accused the workers operating slowly.
“He started telling us that we are lesbians and who is doing what and all these things. All the other workers didn’t respond to him, but I answered him… I didn’t know my husband was in line…All I heard my husband say was ‘Diana, shut your mouth and do your work, girl’. If I had known Mark was in line, I would not have answered the man,” she recalled.
She said her reputed husband then turned to the man and said “Rasta man [the suspect], be humble and leave these girls alone.”
“The Rasta man started going off and saying he didn’t have any time for boys… all I saw was my child’s father walk away and go out of the store… the security guard called me and told me to check on my child’s father because the Rasta man said he was going to get a gun,” the woman said.
Sampson said she went to check on the father of her child and everything seemed fine and she then went back inside the building.
“The Rasta man came back into the store a minute later, collected his order, gave his order to one of his friends who was there with him, and the Rasta man pulled out a knife, crept up behind my child’s father, choked him, and stabbed him in the heart, and then he just ran away,” the woman explained.
“If I had known that it would have led to his death, I wouldn’t have answered him [the suspect] back. I don’t know the suspect; I have never seen him in my life,” the woman said.
She added that she is hoping to get justice for Hilliman soon, adding, “he did not deserve to die like that.” The woman said the man’s children, aged six and two, are now left without a father, and they need justice.
“His six-year-old daughter keeps waking up crying for her father. Every time my two-year-old son asks me for his papa, I have to keep telling him he gone out.”
Police had reported that Hilliman confronted the suspect, who was allegedly interfering with Sampson. Eyewitnesses reported a heated exchange between Hilliman and the suspect, resulting in a violent altercation.
Desperate to protect his wife, Police said Hilliman intervened, urging the suspect to cease his advances.
However, the situation spiralled out of control, and according to Police, Hilliman was stabbed in the left side of his chest. Despite his injuries, he managed to walk a short distance before collapsing. The assailant fled the scene. Public-spirited citizens rushed Hilliman to the Georgetown Public Hospital, but his injuries proved fatal. Police have since launched an investigation. (G9)