As 13-year-old Steven Behar tried to retrieve a ball from the Lamaha Canal, he fell into the black water and was lifeless by the time a woman hauled him out.
Behar, of James Street, Albouystown, Georgetown, was a student of the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School. He usually visited the Sophia area, where the drowning occurred, to play football with other boys.
Behar’s uncle told this newspaper yesterday afternoon that persons who were present at the time told them he went to get the ball, which had fallen into the canal. “They say that he was walking over this pipe that run over de blacka (Lamaha Canal) and he slip and fall in,” the man said.
The man further noted that his nephew did not know how to swim.
Eyewitnesses, according to him, also told relatives that after Behar fell into the canal, the boys with whom he had been playing were afraid to “jump in behind him.” The man said he was told that the boys asked two men to save Behar, but they refused to go in the water as well.
“Every body afraid to go in the canal cause dem say is does take life,” Behar’s uncle said.
Several minutes after his nephew had fallen into the canal, he explained, a woman plunged into the water and hauled him out. Behar was stretched out on the ground and efforts were made to resuscitate him. “We hear that by de time dem take he out he didn’t moving so dem couldn’t do anything,” he added.
The man further said that Behar’s mother was informed of what had happened to her son by police and had gone with them to give a statement.
