An 18-year-old was stabbed to death after he and his family stopped to buy fish and chips on Sunday night along the Diamond Access Road, East Bank Demerara (EBD) and the police have since arrested one person for questioning.
Dead is Rivaldo Williams, called ‘Romeo’ and ‘Dutty,’ a mason of Lot 37 Friendship, EBD. He sustained a single stab wound and was pronounced dead on arrival to the Diamond Hospital, where he was rushed after the stabbing.
Police spokesman Shivpersaud Bacchus yesterday confirmed that the stabbing occurred around 11.30 pm. Bacchus said one person is currently in police custody, assisting with the investigation.
Investigations, the police said, revealed that Williams left a wedding reception and was on his way home when he stopped to purchase fish and chips. “Subsequently a group of men was seen fleeing the location,” the police added.
Williams was later found with a stab wound.
Camille Williams, the dead teen’s mother, explained that she and Rivaldo were among a group of persons who attended a relative’s wedding in Diamond.
She said that they left the wedding in a minibus filled with relatives and on their way home they decided to stop to purchase food.
“We was going home at around 11.15 to 11.20. When we going, we go to Grove to buy fish and chips. The place was locked and they turn back the bus and they come to Diamond head to buy fish and chips,” Camille related.
She said several persons, including Rivaldo, disembarked the bus in order to make the purchase.
“…The children them guh go to purchase the fish and chips and I leave in the bus with my daughter and meh husband and meh granddaughter them… Next thing yuh know, somebody holler ‘Y’all come see wah happen to Romeo’. By time dah, me big daughter run out the bus and I run behind meh daughter like a three minutes after,” Camille said.
She stated that when she rushed out of the bus, she noticed Rivaldo lying on the roadway.
When Stabroek News visited the crime scene yesterday, persons were tightlipped about the stabbing. However, this newspaper was told that the now dead teen and a few of his relatives were involved in a confrontation with a group of men and he was stabbed during the melee.
Alana Lewis, a friend of Rivaldo, told this newspaper that a man attempted to rob one of Rivaldo’s cousins.
This, Lewis said, led to the confrontation.
“One ah the guys go to rob him (Rivaldo cousin) or whatever, he choke him… the guy was coming in and the bus was parked and that’s how the whole thing started… we try to resolve the issue before it escalate and then he run into the place that they had the confrontation,” Lewis said.
“They had a little scuffle but we resolve the issue but the guy ran…..and he came back with himself and like two to four other guys and they advance to us. He was pulling stuff out of his waist and then suddenly….we learn Rivaldo was stabbed,” she added.
Meanwhile, a man, who wished not to be named, related to Stabroek News that he was in the vicinity purchasing food also when the stabbing occurred.
He described Rivaldo and his relatives’ behaviour as “aggressive and confrontational.” “I was buying food and I saw a busload of them pull up. All of them appeared to be intoxicated… One of them got into an issue with another guy. The guy left, walked into the yard and he return like two minutes later and he had a knife in his hand,” the man said.
He noted that a few men who were present at the bar attempted to hold back the armed man. “They were trying to like stop the issue but the guys that was liming by the bus, they were like to me overly aggressive and confrontational,” the man added.
Camille is calling for a thorough investigation of her son’s death. “I need justice for my son and if I don’t get it from the police, I will get it from God. God will give me my justice,” she cried.
