Former WBA World Welterweight Champion Andrew ‘Six Head’ Lewis died around midday yesterday after he was involved in an accident on the Public Road at Friendship, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
Stabroek News understands that Lewis, 44, of Lot 14 Hutsonville, New Hope, EBD, who was also Guyana’s first world boxing champion, was riding a bicycle on his way to visit a friend when he was struck down by a car as he attempted to cross the road. He was picked up by an ambulance that was passing at the time and rushed to the Diamond Diagnostic Hospital where he subsequently died.
Family members and friends turned out in their numbers at the hospital yesterday after receiving the tragic news.
Chaos broke out after some who were not allowed to view the body pushed open the entrance door and forced their way into the hospital. One even jumped through a window.
Lewis’s best friend and neighbour Euvanie Clarke, who first received a telephone call about the accident, spread the news to relatives and family members. Clarke said the last time she spoke with Lewis was yesterday morning when they had a short conversation on the Mayweather and Pacquiao fight. She said she had an urgent feeling to meet him, but never knew she would not be able to see him alive again. She said when she arrived at the hospital, upon viewing the body, it was clear that he had sustained mainly head injuries and bruises about his body.
Lawrene Lewis, sister of the dead man, who said she resided with him for the past 15 years and has never missed any of his fights, related to this newspaper that the last time she saw her brother alive was before he left to go on the road.
She said she was cleaning her yard because the person who was supposed to do it had not turned up, when her brother approached her. “He come and tell me he want eat chicken noodle soup but I tell he I don’t have any chicken noodle to make it. I know he like that bad,” she said weeping.
She added that after receiving the call that he had been struck down, she rushed to the hospital where she saw Lewis lying motionless.
She said she was informed by a nurse at the hospital that they tried the best they could with him but efforts prove futile. The woman wailed loudly that her brother is still alive and she is not accepting that he is dead.
When Stabroek News arrived on the scene of the accident, it was already cleared up but the driver who is currently in police custody was there with police officers assisting with investigations.
Efforts to speak to him proved futile but according to a source, the driver’s explanation is that Lewis appeared from nowhere in front of him and he could not have avoided hitting him. Blood stains were also visible on the roadway.
The famous boxer leaves to mourn six children, three of whom were present at the hospital after they received the tragic news.
