Human torch miner dies

– assailant ‘tripped-out’ family told

A 27-year-old miner succumbed to burns about his body yesterday after he was turned into a human torch at a Mahdia mining camp on Friday by a workmate who dreamt that he was being sexually assaulted.

Ryan Bristol, known as ‘Regan’ or ‘Tippy Toe’, of 35 Quamina Road, Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara, died at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital. He was said to have sustained severe burns to his hands, legs and torso.

The man’s alleged attacker, 25-year-old Lloyd Watson, of Kuru Kuru, Soesdyke/Linden Highway, was charged with attempted murder early yesterday, hours before the victim succumbed. He appeared before acting Chief Magistrate Priya Beharry, at the Georgetown Magistrates Court where he was remanded to prison until July 18, according to police. This newspaper understands that the charge will have to be changed to murder.

Ryan Bristol

According to the police, on June 21, Bristol and the accused were involved in an argument during which the deceased was doused with the gasoline then set on fire.

Stabroek News yesterday visited the home of the deceased and spoke with his parents and other grieving relatives and friends.

His mother, Lilleth Bristol, said that according to the information she received from her son’s employer, Shawn (only name given), her son was sleeping around 4 am in the camp along with his alleged attacker and other workmates. She relayed what she was told, explaining that Watson woke up suddenly from what he described as a nightmare of being sodomized, reached for his cutlass and proceeded to broadside her sleeping son.

“The bossman said that this boy trip out,” the woman recounted. She said she was told that her son didn’t get up, “they say he thought it was a joke and went asking [Watson] wha happen to he. But then the boy went for the gasoline and the match and set he on fire,” the woman told this newspaper.

Other workmates did not attempt to help Bristol as he struggled to escape his hammock and mosquito netting, she was told, because his attacker stood by with the cutlass. Instead, she was told, they fled the horrific scene. By the time the fire was extinguished, half of the mining camp was reportedly burnt to the ground.

Bristol’s grandmother, Evelyn Thomas, told Stabroek News that relatives were contacted about the incident on Friday but were told that it was nothing serious and that the man would be taken care of at the Mahdia Hospital. Dissatisfied with this, the family insisted that the injured man be brought to Georgetown to seek medical attention but were told that arranging a flight for him would be difficult since no planes were scheduled to travel to the area.

“The father even say he gon go in and bring him out but they say he ain’t get burn bad. They say ‘no, is nothing serious’,” Thomas explained.

She recalled that her grandson was taken to his home yesterday at noon at his own request. She explained that his boss brought him to the city and intended to have him transported straight to a hospital, Bristol asked to go home and see his family.

“He come, both his hands, feet, belly, everything bandage up. He come and they carry he upstairs. He talk to his sister and ask her for some water and tell she he want lie down but I say this boy ain’t look good, let we carry he to the doctor,” his mother said.

Thomas, who accompanied her grandson and his employer to the private hospital, said that Bristol did not utter a word during the ride and after they arrived at the hospital’s entrance, she noticed a frailer appearance.

“They lift he out the car and put he in a wheelchair and as they rolling him in, I see he head lean to the side and I say ‘wait, Regan dead?’ and the nurse call for the doctor quick and pull the screen and tell me I got to go outside,” she recalled. A few minutes later, around 13:00 hrs, she was greeted with the sad news of her grandson’s passing, Thomas stated.

Relatives said that Bristol had started working in Mahdia well over a year ago and had visited his home last December. They noted that he had been expected to return home briefly at the end of August to celebrate his 28th birthday on September 2.

Friends who gathered agreed that the man was never troublesome or loudmouth but instead was very quiet, jovial and respectful.