Disapproval of a boyfriend/ girlfriend relationship ended in murder late Tuesday night at Paradise, East Coast Demerara, when a 20-year-old man was stabbed to death.
The 16-year-old boy, who reportedly inflicted the fatal injury on Dexroy Dodson of 393 Paradise Housing Scheme is now in police custody. Police yesterday visited the scene in the company of the alleged attacker in search of the murder weapon, suspected to be a knife. However, according to reports nothing was found.
Reports reaching Stabroek News are that several days ago, the 16-year-old had threatened his sister over seeing Dodson.
However, Dodson and the girl who is said to be 15 years old, met as usual near a roadside shop and were later seen sitting on a bench a short distance away chatting. Some time before 11 pm, the attacker, who was allegedly hiding in the vicinity, pounced from behind a lamppost opposite the bench the two were sitting on. After slapping his sister, he allegedly stabbed Dodson in the chest.
Wounded, Dodson made a desperate attempt to reach his home located some four house lots away but collapsed near a trench, a few metres away. He was found face down, the front of the white vest he was wearing drenched in blood.
After inflicting the injury, the attacker fled the area but this morning turned up at the Cove and John Police Station in the company of his mother. She, along with her daughter, was questioned by the police following the incident.
When this newspaper arrived in the village, several of the man’s relatives along with residents were gathered near the roadside shop, which he had frequented, talking about the incident.
His great aunt, Berna Wilson said Dodson had gone to Paradise towards the latter part of June, when her husband passed away.
She said that on Tuesday night around 7:45, she passed her great nephew and his girlfriend sitting on a bench at the side of the road, chatting.
According to Wilson, he had told her that he would be going home shortly but they were still sitting there just before 9 pm, as she saw them when a bus passed through the area.
The woman recalled that she had asked the man’s father for him.
She said that prior to the discovery of her great nephew’s body, the girl had passed her home twice and it appeared as though she was looking for Dodson. When the body was found, she said, it was already stiff.
A still distraught, Marlon Dodson told this newspaper that his son was at his home in Bachelor’s Adventure on Monday and he seemed his usual self. He said he was unaware that his son was involved with the teenaged girl.
Cell phone
He said he visited Wilson on Tuesday night and they had “a gaff”.
“I collect he [Dodson] bicycle and went out. When I coming back I did see two people sitting on de bench but didn’t know was de two of them,” he recalled adding he later decided that it was time to go home.
“When I walking out, I decide fuh ring he phone and I hear it nearby suh I turn back and find it in the bush by a lantern post,” he said, adding that seconds later he spotted “he [Dodson] by the trench corner” and quickly summoned his aunt, telling her to come and see something. When she arrived he said, “look Magga Man down there”.
The man said that although the area where his son’s body was found is well lit no one recalled seeing or hearing anything.
He said he visited the girl’s home yesterday and he was told that the attacker had been hiding and then emerged and slapped his sister, then fired what appeared to be a cuff at Dodson.
He said it would appear that the girl ran away before Dodson was stabbed. He said she told him that she “thought that he was cuffed and did not know he was stabbed”.
Stabroek News attempted to speak to the mother of the two teens but she said that she could not since she was running late for a visit to the station where the lad is being held.
‘A terror’
Residents yesterday described Dodson’s attacker as a terror, stressing that he was “ignorant and very aggressive”. They expressed anger that Dodson met his death in such a tragic way.
Stabroek News was told that Dodson had no known problems with anyone and trouble began last Sunday when his assailant voiced his disapproval at him speaking to his young sister. The two began seeing each other about three weeks ago.
Sharon, a woman who operates a small shop as the side of the road, recalled that she left Dodson at her stall around 6:30 Tuesday night after the area was hit by a blackout.
“I tell he man I going in due to the blackout, but he does normally keep me company everyday till I lock up,” she said, adding that she left him standing at the side of the road and went home.
“He was very close to me man. He was like a son,” the woman said.
Sharon described Dodson as a jovial person who never showed disrespect to anyone.
Dodson also leaves to mourn his mother Lavern Fortune and six siblings.
