-argued over bucket of water
By Zoisa Fraser
An argument over a bucket of water ended in tragedy yesterday for a Beterverwagting family when a mentally ill man stabbed his 57-year-old father to death shortly after pelting him with bricks.
Clement Petrie known as Clement Solomon of Lot 120 Canterbury walk, BV, East Coast Demerara succumbed to stab wounds to his chest and neck before arriving at the Georgetown Hospital around 9:40 am where villagers and relatives had taken him.
His son, 29-year-old Seon Solomon who had a history of injuring relatives including his mother was arrested at the house, where he had returned after committing the act. The man had time to bathe, dress and hang out clothing before the police arrived, neighbours said yesterday.
Solomon who also abused drugs, according to reports, handed the murder weapon to the police without a fuss.
Police said in a release last evening that, Solomon, “a habitual user of narcotics” and his father were involved in an argument over the disappearance of clothing. He became annoyed, armed himself with a knife and attacked his father who tried to escape.
The release stated that the man sustained three stab wounds to his body, two to his upper chest and one to the left rib cage.
Shortly after this newspaper arrived on the scene a bus pulled up and the occupants, several of whom had on bloodstained clothing started screaming and crying. Some were shouting out that the man had died.
One neighbour recalled hearing the two quarrelling over water minutes before the stabbing occurred. This newspaper was told that the community does not have a regular water supply and Solomon was always in the habit of using out the water that was being stored without filling it back.
Around 9 am yesterday, the son filled water from a drum and his father told him not to use it. This apparently angered the son and there was an argument during which Petrie told him that he had to leave the home by afternoon.
Petrie then left the yard heading in the direction of the roadway.
Neighbours said that they saw Solomon pelting his father with bricks and he fell on the roadway shortly after. The young man then began stabbing his father with a knife he had in his possession but despite his injury the man managed to walk calmly through several nearby yards before collapsing near a water tank in his cousins’ yard.
Blood was evident on the ground, on fences and grass where he had passed.
This newspaper was told by several relatives that Solomon was only released from jail about two months ago after he had served a three-year sentence for chopping a man on his forehead.
After his release the young man had nowhere to go and despite his history, his father allowed him to stay in the upper flat of his two- storey home, while he resided in the ground flat with his wife, Lavern Daw and their children.
The dead man’s daughter Shondell Petrie said that the two had a misunderstanding sometime back and her father “put him out”. However the man called the home and begged to be taken in back as he had nowhere to go. Shondell said that her father allowed him to return on the conditions that he find a job, stop smoking drugs and behave himself. She told this newspaper while holding back tears that her brother agreed but then began behaving badly again.
Asked if he could not stay at any other relatives, the woman said that he had lived with his grandmother but he had beaten her up so she did not want him there. His grandmother recalled yesterday that before Solomon went to jail, he hit her in the head for no reason.
She told this newspaper that he stabbed his mother who now resides in the United States, repeatedly following an argument over wares.
