NINETEEN-year-old Ameer Balgobin of Logwood, East Coast Demerara, was last Tuesday viciously attacked by two men, one of whom had a ‘Rambo’ knife which he plunged and caused to remain stuck into the region of his hip and thigh bone for several hours, until he was able to reach the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).The incident happened shortly after 1:30 hrs and the knife remained stuck into the victim’s hip until around 03:30 hrs when he arrived at the hospital. In the attack, Balgobin also suffered multiple stab wounds to his face, chest, abdomen, back and right hand.

The wounded man’s deeply distraught mother, Ann Garid, recalled that on Monday evening her son had left the home to attend a Bar-B-Cue at Foulis, Enmore, also on the East Coast Demerara. She said that around 1:00, she received a phone call from him, and in agony he managed to say to her: “Mom, ah get jook up, come now: Bring a taxi and come.” Then his voice died away.
In a state of panic, she quickly got a taxi and drove down to 18th Street, Foulis where the Bar-B-Cue was being held in Enmore. But when the taxi driver realized that the victim was bleeding, he refused to take him into his car and drove away.
In a quandary, the woman called the Enmore Police, informing them that a young man was attacked at a barbeque at Foulis and was jooked up and bleeding, so could they come quickly. But the police then began asking her questions like, how did she know that the person got jook up, if she saw that.
In the midst of being interrogated by the police the woman’s phone credit ran out and her communication link with them was cut off. At that hour of the morning there was no way for her to get credit, so her woes were intensified. Eventually she managed to get a young man to make a cell call to a taxi service in Better Hope, using his cellular phone.
When the second taxi arrived, the wounded man was taken to the Accident and emergency (A&E) Department of the GPH, arriving there a round 3:20 hrs. The knife was removed from the injured man’s hip within about ten minutes and he was treated for his injuries and admitted to the surgical ward.
Relating his ordeal from his hospital bed, Ameer recalled that whilst he was at the Bar-B-Cue he was betting at a Chic-Chic board, when a man crept up from behind him and started feeling his pocket. He spun around and asked the man what was he doing. Both embarrassed and annoyed, the man left the scene, but later returned with a long Rambo knife, and joined by an accomplice, began jooking him about the body.
He said he recognized the man – one he identified at ‘Jaggat’, living aback of Enmore Hope Housing Scheme and the other – ‘Big U’ who lives with his grandmother at Grass Field, Enmore.
Pathetically, however, the victim said that despite giving such information to the police, the men have not been arrested. The relatives are peeved, noting that it would have been the second occasion that the police failed them in regard with that same incident – first by not responding to the call for help when Balgobin was wounded, and again by not going after his aggressors.
They are hoping that justice would be done in this matter.

By Shirley Thomas