A teenager of South, Sophia Greater Georgetown is now nursing serious injuries and burns about the body, sustained after he was taken to a house by 15 men and doused with gasoline then set alight.
Burnt: Handel Payne
Eighteen-year-old Handel Payne, a construction worker of Lot 75 Block “E” Sophia, told Guyana Times that, about two weeks ago, he was at a friend’s home when the group of men arrived and accused him of being involved in a theft.
The teen said the men kept saying they had found in the house a pair of boots that were stolen, which belonged with him.
He explained that after a few minutes of trying to convince the men of his innocence, he was picked up by the 15 persons and taken to another location, “somewhere in South Ruimveldt”.
He explained that when he got to that location, the men dragged him out of the car and began beating him. They
Subsequently doused him with gasoline and set him alight.
“Them claiming that I do some break and enter, but me ain’t know about no break and enter. When I sit down with my friend, I see them coming, but me ain’t run or nothing because I didn’t know it was me they was coming to. They come up to me and say, ‘Is you I coming to!’,” he explained.
Payne says he has recognised two of the men who lit him afire. He narrated that after he was set alight, he fought to get his clothes off. However, after a while, the men quenched the fire by throwing water on him. He claimed that his attackers then threw him into the car, and took him to the Police Station.
“Them carry me to Prashad Nagar Police Station… all I keep telling the Police that this is the same people who burn me up.”
While at the Police Station, Payne said, he was thrown in the back of a Police truck by some officers and the same persons who set him a blaze, and was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
“When they finish doing all of this, they dropped me off at the hospital and never returned,” he related.
Payne sustained first and second degree burns to his neck, torso, arms, hands, and back. He said that since the incident occurred, he has been making several reports to the East La Penitence Police Station, but to no avail.
“When I went there, them tell me them aint get no vehicle… The Commander called today (Wednesday) and said if I see them must tell he. But they (the suspects) say if I say anything, they gone kill me”.
While the lad remains adamant that he did not commit any larceny, he admitted to being fearful for his life, since the men who had abducted him are still roaming the streets. Payne and his family members are calling on higher authorities to “do something about the situation”.
Contacted on Friday, A Division Commander Simon McBean told this publication that he was informed of the incident, and an investigation has been launched. (LaWanda McAllister)
