Written by Shirley Thomas
A 19-year-old peacemaker who was struck on his head with a stout piece of  wood as  he attempted to part a fight between two young men at Rosignol two Fridays ago, succumbed to his injuries last Sunday, after being on life support at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital for two weeks.

Dead is Shelton Malcolm Joseph,  also called ‘Shabba’, of Ozamah Street, Rosignol, West Coast Berbice, who was brutally attacked by one of the men in a brawl.   He was dealt a severe blow to the back of the head with a 4”x4”  wood and suffered severe head injuries – a ruptured brain and fractures to the head, including the frontal lobe.  There was internal bleeding and clots were detected in about 7 to 8 places in his head, caused by ruptured veins, his mother, Sandra Patricia Joseph told the Guyana Chronicle.

A post-mortem examination is to be performed on Shelton’s body at the GPHC mortuary today.
Shelton’s devastated mother recalled that around 17:30 hrs on the ill-fated day, her son was  riding his bicycle a short distance away from the Rosignol Stelling, when a fight broke out between  two men he apparently knew.
Shelton got off his cycle and hurried over to the two men and attempted to make peace.  However, just as he turned away one of the hostile men  picked up a piece of wood and lashed him to  his head.  He immediately collapsed and never regained consciousness up to the time of his death.
The injured man was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital and later transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital.  But after his condition worsened, he was evacuated to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he had emergency surgery, shortly after midnight that Friday.
His grandfather, who had just boarded a boat at Rosignol Stelling, en route to New Amsterdam, was among several people who witnessed the incident, and saw the young man collapse  after being struck on the head.  However, he had no idea it was his grandson, until he joined other passengers who hurriedly  disembarked the vessel and ran to the scene to find out what was taking place.
Simultaneously,  Shelton’s aunt  Olivia Thomas was in the area, rounding up pigs and received the bad news.  She immediately contacted other family members.
Throughout Shelton’s period of illness, the family prayed for his recovery and his mother implored other family members to keep their cool and not do anything drastic  and aggravate the situation.
However, relatives have expressed disappointment that the assailant’s  family never came forward to even say that they were sorry about the incident.  And even worse, the police who  knew of the incident  never came forward to make any enquiries.  They never even went after the suspect  nor visited  the wounded man in hospital for the entire two weeks he spent in the ICU on life support.

JUSTICE BE SERVED
Sandra said when she contacted the police they  said they were not aware it was something serious or they would  have followed the matter  up.   But one week later, even after being told that the wounded man was on life support in hospital,  they still did nothing.
Meanwhile,  Shelton’s  family members  were told that the suspect had gone into hiding, and was  probably whisked away into the gold-mining interior.  Now the relatives of the dead man  are clamoring for the police to take action so that justice can be served.