A 51-year-old Parfait Harmonie man was fatally stabbed in the neck yesterday after he intervened in a matter “concerning the burning of DVDs”, police said in a press statement last night.

The suspect had not been arrested up to press time last night. However, a police source reported that ranks were dispatched to the Yarrow Dam, Georgetown area in search of the man. According to the source, the suspect reportedly fled to the Georgetown location after the incident.

Rupert Randolph Gill

Rupert Randolph Gill, a minibus driver/mechanic of Parfait Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, was fatally wounded at about 5.30 pm yesterday. Investigations, the police said, revealed that Gill was in a shop, when he “intervened in a matter concerning the burning of DVDs between the suspect and the shop owner”. It was during this verbal intervention that Gill was stabbed to his neck by the DVD vendor. Gill, according to the police release, was taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Details of the incident remain unclear. However, when Stabroek News visited the scene shortly before 8.30 pm yesterday residents reported that Gill and the alleged attacker had “no previous problems”.

The deceased, a relative recalled, left his Parfait Harmonie home for the shop; located mere streets away. A short while later, the relative said, a message was dispatched informing them of Gill’s death.

“We still don’t know what happen,” the distressed relative said. “He left home and the next thing we hear is that he get stab in the neck.”

Deborah Gill, wife of the deceased, was up to press time last night with police at a house located in the Yarrow Dam area. Gill, according to close friends, accompanied police there to aid in identifying the suspect.

“Rupi [Rupert Gill] was a good man. He was a family man,” A close friend said yesterday. “We are all shocked to hear of his death…he and his children were close and they will suffer the most in this.”