Teen stabbed to death …cousin arrested
Leon Anthony Ritchie
Leon Anthony Ritchie

A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD boy is in police custody after he allegedly stabbed his 17-year-old cousin to death on Tuesday night during a heated argument at Canal #1, West Bank Demerara. Dead is Leon Anthony Ritchie of Lot 20 L’Oratoire, Canal #1, West Bank Demerara; he was rushed to the West Demerara Regional Hospital with a stab wound to the chest and was pronounced dead on arrival.

The house where the stabbing occurred

This newspaper understands that the argument stemmed from ongoing disputes involving money to purchase food, a cell phone charger and a relationship surrounding a young lady.
Ritchie lived alone in a house at the front of the lot, while two cousins, including the perpetrator, lived at the back; their grandparents, who acted as guardians, died a few years ago.
Monty Abrahams, an uncle, told this newspaper that he rushed Ritchie to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“I was sitting on a bench in front my home when my cousin Keno come with a bicycle with one speed and run straight into the shop and I ask him what happen, he said he just juck Leon, and I said boy you joking,” Abrahams recounted.
“He then jumped back on his bicycle and went back to the scene and I get my car keys and went behind him and I see them bring Leon out onto the roadway from the back house and I put him in my car and carried him to the hospital,” the uncle said.
According to Abrahams, the alleged perpetrator gave conflicting stories about how the stabbing took place. The uncle noted that in December last, the cousins had problems over money borrowed to purchase food and issues surrounding a cellphone charger recently.
“So I ask he why he didn’t come to me about the phone charger, since I could have given him one,” the uncle noted. On the night of the fatal stabbing, Abrahams said he was told that Ritchie returned home to have a bath when the young cousin picked up his (Ritchie’s) hat and slippers and took it into the back house, luring him into the kitchen where he was stabbed.

The house that Leon Anthony Ritchie occupied

The dead teen’s father, Michael Ritchie, said he saw his son Tuesday when he stopped at his home nearby to have a meal.
“He eat and everything and he went over to check his place and I was waiting on him to come back and then is when his uncle bring him in the car and told me he just get stabbed. I jumped in and went to the hospital with them,” the father of two explained.
According to the senior Ritchie, he was told by his son that the cousin had told his (Ritchie’s) girlfriend that he was infected with a terminal sexual disease, in an attempt to discourage her from having a relationship with Ritchie.
The teen’s mother Desiree Jones said she last saw her son two months ago, but would inquire about him often since the father is also employed at her worksite at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
The mother of three of Best Plantation, West Coast Demerara, said after finishing work Tuesday she received a cellphone call from her son’s father relating that he was stabbed and seriously injured.

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