A 56-year-old taxi driver was fatally stabbed last night by two persons who had hired him in front of the Georgetown Hospital.
One of the alleged assailants was held by police shortly after the incident; the other escaped.
Vibert Assanah, an ex-police officer of 40 Ptolemy Street, Melanie Damishana sustained the fatal wound on the left shoulder. The weapon – a knife was pushed downward, puncturing a major artery. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown hospital around 11 last night.
According to reports reaching Stabroek News two men hired the well-known taxi driver who operates his car from outside of the GPHC. However the driver was stopped on Bent Street between Hardina and Haley streets where he met his end. So far reports indicate that the incident is a robbery- turn-murder.
When Stabroek News visited the scene, most of the onlookers said that they were indoors when they heard screaming. Upon venturing outside Assanah was on the ground besides his car bleeding profusely. Police officers were on the scene looking for clues and bloodstains were visible on the ground.
Meanwhile one of the men who allegedly hired the driver was picked up by police after the crime. The man was taken to the hospital by officers for treatment for a laceration he sustained on his upper chest, most likely from a scuffle that ensued in the car on Bent Street.
His arrival at the hospital and the rapid spreading of the news that one of their own was killed sent the taxi drivers who operate outside of the hospital into an uproar.
The drivers expressed their disbelief that Assanah who they had seen minutes before was dead.
They remembered the man as a jovial individual who would give drops to people even if their fare was a little short.
News of the man’s demise was late in reaching the man’s relatives. And when this newspaper visited his sister’s residence in Melanie the news had just reached. Members of the family then travelled to the hospital where the body was still awaiting identification and a relative fainted at the sight of the dead man.
Assanah leaves to mourn his wife and three children, among other relatives.
