A 17-year-old boy of Number 70 Village, Corentyne was brutally murdered when he tried to make peace during an argument between his stepfather and two other men around 7.30 pm on Sunday.
Sasenarine ‘Suraj’ Persaud who sustained a chop and stab in the region of his heart was pronounced dead on arrival at the Skeldon Hospital.
One of his attackers is on the run, while another suspect, who attempted to take his own life by slashing his throat, is a patient under guard at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
The injured suspect reportedly confessed that he “bore” Persaud above his heart with a “black handle knife”. Both suspects are said to be deportees. Police later retrieved the knife and the cutlass at the scene.
Persaud’s distraught mother, Vijayantimala Somai, 39, who witnessed the incident, told Stabroek News that she had sent her son to the shop the purchase mosquito coil.
She said when the teenager got out on the road he heard his stepfather, Naresh Roopnarine, and the two men arguing.
Roopnarine’s car was parked on the road and her son tried to put him into it so he could go home but the argument escalated further.
Somai heard the noise and ran out from her home just in time to see the main suspect, ‘Jo Jo’ cuffing and dragging her son into his yard.
He then fired a chop at him with a cutlass. This caused Persaud to lose his balance and the man pushed him to the ground, causing him to “hit he head hard on the concrete.”
‘Jo Jo’ then ran and hid the cutlass under the stairs. Other persons had also witnessed when the other suspect stabbed the boy.
The woman said she ran into the yard crying and asking ‘Jo Jo’ why he had hurt her son and begged him to help her lift him up. She said the suspect just kept asking her “wah? Wah?” as if he had not done anything.
She then knelt near to her badly wounded son and tried to lift him but saw blood oozing from his chest. The woman said she shouted hysterically for her brother, Kishore who was across the road and he and his son, Akash, 20, lifted him out of the yard.
Kishore left to get his car to take the injured boy to the hospital but by then a bus stopped and took him. Overwhelmed with grief, Somai sat on the road and cried.
Her brother took her to the hospital, where a doctor gave her the sad news that her son had died before reaching the hospital. Unable to accept the news, she said, she asked the doctor if he was sure.
Persaud had completed a six-month mechanic course at the Skeldon Estate and was waiting until he reached 18 in August to apply for a job there.
The woman said she had shared a good relationship with her son and would tell him, “anything that was bothering me.” She described him as a “loving, caring and friendly child.”
Somai also has a 20-year-old daughter who is married.
