Gilbert Wharton, the butcher who was hit by a speeding car driven by a policeman on Monday evening, succumbed to his injuries last evening.
Wharton, 21, of Lot 6 A Laing Avenue, West Ruimveldt, sustained a broken jaw, extensive facial damage, a broken left hand and leg injuries. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC). Doctors had warned relatives that he had a 50/50 chance of survival.
Sometime around 6pm yesterday, a cousin told Stabroek News, a nurse telephoned them and asked them to go the GPHC immediately. “When we got the call we thought maybe he had a relapse…we never once thought that we had lost him,” she said.
When relatives arrived at the hospital, they were plunged into misery after they were told of Wharton’s death. Until that moment, the woman said, they had all been clinging to hope and praying for his recovery.
The driver of the car, a policeman who is attached to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), was reportedly overtaking another vehicle when he hit Wharton. Angry relatives said last evening that they were told that the rank was released from close arrest at the Brickdam Police Station on Tuesday afternoon, on the orders of “higher authority.” Allison Wharton, the dead man’s aunt, said, “I want to know if higher authority doesn’t does have a heart or feelings in a human body. I need some kind of justice.” She and other relatives later visited the Brickdam Police Station, where they were told that police were looking for the rank, in light of the Wharton’s death.
An uncle, meanwhile, said, “We want it to be known that it is a policeman who hit him down and we know police does stand by police, so we want it to be known that we want justice… we don’t want to hear tomorrow morning that because the driver is a policeman he going to get off.”
He and other relatives, the man said, met with the CID rank on Tuesday. The rank, according to Wharton’s uncle, admitted to them that he was at fault and apologized for the grief he was causing them. “He told us that he was overtaking and he said that he didn’t see my nephew until it was too late,” the man said.
Police are yet to issue a statement on the incident.
Reports reaching this newspaper on Monday had said that Wharton had left work and was on his way home when the incident occurred, just after 8 pm at Thomas Lands, in front of Camp Ayanganna. He and his co-worker, Omesh Ramdhan, were on their bicycles heading west while the car was heading in the opposite direction. Ramdhan had told Stabroek News that he was riding in front of Wharton. “We been riding slow and in the corner,” he said. The car, PHH 6610, he recounted, was attempting to overtake another vehicle and in the process of doing so hit Wharton.
Meanwhile, when Stabroek News visited the Laing Avenue, George-town home of the deceased last evening, his maternal grandmother was being consoled by relatives. The woman told this newspaper that Wharton was the sole provider for their home. “He mother die when he was small and I take care of he…I was mother and father to he,” the woman said between sobs.
The woman said that she also takes care of his younger sister and brother. Wharton, she said, started working as soon as he was able because he wanted to help her take care of his younger siblings. “Is na like he was a bad boy… he was hardworking… he used to take care of we,” she said. “Ow! Ow! How they going to do this to me? How? This grandmother want justice…they break this grandmother heart,” she cried.
