–Confesses: ‘I want to finish him off’

A TEENAGE boy on Wednesday stabbed to death taxi driver, Deonarine Laljit, called “Baba”, of Number 72 Village, East Berbice, Corentyne.
Reports are that around 12:30h, the 15-year-old suspect was a back-seat passenger in Laljit’s car when he dealt him two stabs, one to the neck and the other to his shoulder.
During an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Commander of ‘B’ Division, Ian Amsterdam revealed that the act was reportedly premeditated.

“The teen told investigators that he specifically caught the victim’s car with the intention of finishing him off, because the taxi driver would taunt his sister on numerous occasion,” Amsterdam said.
The teen, a former student of Skeldon Line Path Secondary and of Number 65 Village, was subsequently arrested and is in police custody assisting with investigations.
This newspaper understands that the teen concealed the murder weapon in a knapsack he was carrying, and caught the vehicle at Number 65 Village.

It was also learnt that while in the vicinity of Line Path, Corriverton, the teen carried out the act, because the “teasing of his sister became unbearable”.
After committing the act, the teen reportedly fled the scene, while the victim exited the vehicle, bleeding profusely and calling out for help. He minutes later collapsed in front of a yard.

When this newspaper visited the crime scene, the road was still wet with the man’s blood, as were the driver and front passenger seats of his car.
Meanwhile, Tashodra Joseph, the 32-year-old wife of the deceased, related that minutes before her husband died, he had dropped her off at the NIS Office with the intention of returning to pick her up shortly.
“I got a call asking if I could drop off his NIS card,” she said. “He picked me up on the road and drop me off at the insurance place to take care of some business; he promised to pick me up back.

“I finish like in 15 minutes and come out, but didn’t see he.”
After not seeing her husband, Joseph said, she borrowed the NIS security guard’s phone to call and inform him that she was waiting but the phone rang out.
It was at this point, she said, that she noticed a few family members’ cars speeding down the road.
“Suh, in me mind, me say something happen; me say lemme guh hospital,” the distraught woman said, adding:

“When me reach de hospital, me nah see none car me know, suh meh tell de driver guh up li’l mo’.
“I stop and mek a call home; ah den dem tell meh somebody stab meh husband and kill am. Me go down to the scene, only to find meh husband lifeless body in blood.”
Joseph related that her husband would usually keep money in his car, and at the time of the incident, he had about $30,000 which was unaccounted for.
“He does save de money he get daily, and does gimme pon ah weekend, but we nah find it in de car; we only see some change scatter up, and about $2000. Suh me nah know wha’ happen,” she said.

Joseph said her husband has been working as a hire car driver for over 10 years, and is the sole breadwinner of the family.
He leaves home at around 05:00h every day to work from Number 65 to Crabwwod Creek, and was described as a caring and understanding person.
Laljit leaves to mourn, besides his wife, two children aged 16 and 13.