WHAT started out as a moment of fun for a group of children ‘playing Phagwah’ on Carmichael Street (in the vicinity of Woodlands Hospital) yesterday morning, ended tragically when a man, said to be of unsound mind, fatally stabbed a construction worker who was observing the fun. Dead is Abdool Ghanie, 38, of Enterprise Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara, a carpenter who worked at a construction site next to Scotiabank on the other side of Carmichael Street. The tragedy happened around 10:30hrs.
The children related to this newspaper that they were playing Phagwah with one another (not involving any  adults) when the man, identified by another as a substance abuser, picked up bricks and began stoning them. They said they were alarmed.
The boys claimed that they were running after their friend to throw water on him, when the man who was some distance away started hurling the missiles at them.  At that moment a police vehicle containing ranks was passing, travelling south along Carmichael Street and they tried desperately to attract the attention of the cops.
They said that when they informed the police,  the ranks did not take them seriously and began laughing and drove away.  An elderly woman who witnessed the ordeal added that, at this stage she  advised the children to stop playing and go back into their yards, since the environment was becoming dangerous.
On seeing this, some men at the construction site moved across to the avenue (between the eastern and western lanes on Carmichael Street) and called out to the aggressor, cautioning him to desist from pelting the children, but he became annoyed and was abusive. Incensed, the aggressor advanced towards the men, brushed aside an elderly man who was standing next to Ghanie and plunged a knife into the region of Ghanie’s heart. Ghanie stumbled and fell to the ground.
This was done in the full view of the children he had earlier attacked with bricks, who became hysterical and started screaming for help. At this stage the man began running away, but he was apprehended by two others passing at the time and he stumbled and fell into a drain.
Meanwhile, public-spirited persons on the scene rushed the injured man to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.  Others on the scene, who knew the carpenter telephoned his family at Enterprise and broke the sad news to Ghanie’s wife, Shameeza, and their three children who hastened to the hospital and later to the murder scene on Carmichael Street.