Taxi driver killed over fare

…suspect claims self-defence

Forty-two-year-old Owen Lynch, the Princes Street, Georgetown taxi driver who was stabbed to death in Mocha Arcadia, East Bank Demerara (EBD) on Tuesday night by a passenger he had picked up at Sophia, Greater Georgetown, was reportedly killed over the taxi fare.
Lynch’s body was discovered lying motionless around 21:45h with multiple stab wounds. Enquiries revealed that Lynch, a taxi driver attached to Swift Cabs Taxi Service, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, was dispatched to Sophia to make a pick-up.
The man reportedly ventured to the location where he picked up a passenger who requested to be taken to Cemetery Road, Mocha Arcadia. However, when the cab arrived at Mocha, the passenger refused to pay Lynch the requested sum.
The driver reportedly called the taxi service to report the matter to the dispatcher, who instructed him to leave. That was the last time anyone heard from Lynch. His body was discovered with an ice pick nearby, the Police said in a press statement.
When Guyana Times visited the now dead man’s mother, Coreen Hilliman at her Stevedore Housing Scheme, Georgetown home, the woman burst into tears and said that Lynch was her only son.
“It was very hard for me to lose my only son, my only son… it is very difficult; my son, everybody know he, he would fret from time to time, but when it comes to certain things, he would be there; he don’t make joke with his money, he always does say that his money is for his children,” Hilliman cried.
The woman reportedly received the news of her son’s demise from his girlfriend.
She explained that her son’s girlfriend placed several calls to Lynch’s phone on Tuesday night, all of which went unanswered. When she finally received an answer, it was from the Police instructing her to visit the Providence Police Station.
After the girlfriend and Hilliman went to the Police Station, they were taken to the murder scene where they saw Lynch’s body.
The grieving mother disclosed that the only information she received regarding what transpired came from the dispatcher.
“The base woman told me that she told him if they don’t want to pay, then turn back and put them off…that is all, so I can’t say what happened after then or anything because she said that he didn’t have the opportunity to call her back to say that well, he turning back with the drop or whatever. I don’t know what occurred, I don’t know if he decided to say well, they gon pay he the money or if they stick he up or what. I don’t know,” Hilliman said.
She described her son as a “stand-up person” (frank) and one who cared for his two children, who both reside in French Guiana.
A Division (Georgetown-East Bank Demerara) Police have arrested one person – a 48-year-old Mocha, Cemetery Road mason, who they said confessed to killing Lynch in self-defence.
The suspect reportedly confessed to stabbing Lynch several times to his body with an object.
The mason reportedly divulged to Police that he was out imbibing with a friend in Sophia when he called the Swift Cabs Taxi Service for a cab to transport him to his home.
When Lynch arrived, the suspect alleged that it was agreed that he would be taken to the location for $1500.
While journeying home, the suspect told Police that Lynch took a wrong direction and as such the duo went back to Sophia.
Upon returning to Sophia, a friend of the suspect reportedly instructed that he ventured back home to Mocha using the same taxi at an additional cost of $500.
After once again arriving in Mocha, the suspect claimed that he gave $2000 to Lynch who demanded an additional $500.
However, the suspect is alleging that he had exited the taxi and had begun walking to his house when he was attacked by Lynch. The man told Police that he defended himself, stabbing Lynch before leaving the scene. He was later informed that the taxi driver had succumbed.
The man is being held as Police continue their investigations. (Kizzy Coleman)