Teen allegedly stabs labourer to death during drinking spree

A 14-year-old boy is now in custody after he allegedly stabbed a 29-year-old labourer to death Saturday evening at Auchlyne Village, Corentyne, Berbice.
The dead man has been identified as Desmond Sewdat of Auchlyne Village. Based on information received, the teen and the now dead man were seen imbibing after which an argument broke out between them.
However, the argument escalated into a scuffle. Shortly after the scuffle, the now dead man was discovered lying motionless with a single stab wound to his stomach.
He was picked up and rushed to the Port Mourant Hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries on the way there.
At the home of the dead man, his sister, Nafeeza, told Guyana Times that she received a report that her brother was injured and was lying on the street.
At the time, she was at the Community Centre and she left about five minutes after. When she arrived at the scene, Police were already there and from all indications, her brother was already dead.
“The Police tell me that he already died… he had one bore on his chest.”
The grieving sister related that the suspect was not at the scene when she arrived.
Another sibling, Shameza, explained that her now dead brother visited her prior to his demise. According to her, Sewdat was under the influence of alcohol when he visited and he asked for a telephone call to his godfather. He then asked his father for a shirt and left.
Eyewitnesses stated that the now dead man, who was imbibing with friends, was being ‘tantalised’ about a dirty shirt that he was wearing. He left and returned with the clean shirt, but his friends continued to tease him.
The sister noted that her brother and the suspect were friends. “I always see him talking to this boy and one, one time I does see he and dis boy riding on the road, but I don’t know if they have a close relationship because he don’t live here with me and only when he drink, he does come….” she explained.
Meanwhile, the suspect’s mother, Eulex Welch, confirmed that the now dead man and the teenager were close friends.
“The boys dem don’t do without meh son. Sometimes early morning that same one that dead does come early in the morning for O’Neal and I does quarrel why he dot to come calling before 6:00. I tell him he musn’t come for meh son because when he in his worries is I alone goes got to go and run behind O’Neal, you all don’t even give me a dollar to look after meh son, so you all don’t come calling for him.”

According to Welch, her son told investigators that he and the now dead man indeed had an argument over clothes.
“He told the Police that he didn’t do the crime. The CID [Criminal Investigation Department] treated him very nice, but the Police harassing him a lot. The CID asked me if I satisfy with the statement and I tell them yes.
“He said he never do it. He said that the man fall down with the knife and bore himself. He tell me that the boy was drunk.”
“He had give my son some clothes from a barrel that he get and the clothes can’t fit him. When my son bring the clothes, I told him to carry it back, but he say that the two of them are friends.”
Welch said the now dead man was demanding that the teenager return the clothes and he apparently refused to do so.
The teen’s mother related that her son has been involved in several incidents and was arrested by the Police.
“He went to Juvenile Centre. Only the other day he come from Juvenile Centre and a month before he come from Juvenile Centre. I can’t say what he went there for, because the Police did not tell me anything as a parent, they just pick him up and carry him,” she related.
Welch is of the belief that her son did not commit the crime. This, she related, is based on his actions on Saturday.
“Whenever he do something, he does get away and hide. When the Police come for him, he does run away. Saturday, he tell me that he didn’t do it and ask me to take him to the Police so he could clear his name,” the mother cried.
She says there were other persons around and as such, they should all be held as suspects.
“Is because my son is small and he can’t explain himself that is why they only hold him up,” she claimed. A post-mortem is expected to be performed on the man’s body today as Police continue their investigations. (Andrew Carmichael)