By: Shemar Alleyne
A 17-year-old fisherman of Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara (WCD), was on Monday brutally chopped to the head by several Venezuelans.
The injured youth has been identified as Navindra Bharat.
According to information received, on the day in question, three Venezuelans brothers were physically abusing their sister-in-law, who sought refuge in the victim’s yard.
However, she was sent away by the victim’s mother – Shelly Rasheed.
“We don’t understand how they are talking, so in light of them beating her on the street, she passed and saw me on my veranda sitting down, and she decided to come in. When she came in now, I said to her, ‘girl, go out and collect your children them’ because she has three small children,” the woman told this publication.
“Eventually, she came out of the yard, and she left, and she walked away, and she didn’t collect her children them. The brothers-in-law them walking behind her, and they started cursing my son and me.”
According to the teen’s mother, later that day, her son left home and went a few houses away for physical therapy, and upon completion, he was standing on a nearby street corner with some friends when the suspects approached him and assaulted him.
“Now, they came from behind him because they saw him sitting down there, and they came from behind him, and one snatched he and pushed him into a fence. Another one started chopping him in his head while another one had a bicycle chain and started lashing him, and he didn’t get to move. The four other boys that went there, they started running,” the mother recalled.
“My daughter-in-law went at the gate stand up, and she saw and started running going and started hollering, and then they ran away, but he [was] already chopped him up. He started walking coming up, and by the time he reached in front, he collapsed.”
Bharat was picked up and rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital, where he was treated and referred to the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
He was further transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Cooperation (GPHC), where he was also treated and sent away.
The grieving mother stated that her son has suffered a fractured skull and is now out of a job. According to the woman, her son was the sole-breadwinner.
“I don’t know what is going to happen because he is my breadwinner. I have he and two other small ones and myself and all of us doing fishing work. He out of a job, I out of a job, and I don’t know what is going to happen.”
The single mother said that she is now fearful for her life. She is hoping that the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice.
Police, in a subsequent release, noted that investigations are ongoing.
