…mother seeks compensation

AN early-morning Christmas visit to his brother’s home to wish him a merry Christmas turned out to be a nightmare for 24-year-old Dwayne Small who later woke up on a hospital bed minus one of his eyes.

The construction worker related to the Guyana Chronicle that he left his home to go check on one of his brothers, but when he got there the man was not home. On his way back he decided to stop and have a conversation with a friend when a bottle, hurled by one of three fighting males, connected to his left eye and rendered him unconscious. He later found out from doctors that he would lose his left eye.

During his interview with the media on Wednesday at the Georgetown Public Hospital, Small recalled that on Christmas morning while having the conversation with his friend, he noticed that two young men were having an altercation and which stemmed from one “disrespecting” the uncle of the other.

The young man who made the alleged disrespectful comments was described as a trouble-maker in the community; after making the comments to the other man, the man reportedly dealt him several slaps across the face which forced him to race home and return with a knife.

The Guyana Chronicle was told that as the two were squaring off, the father of one of the men showed up, approached the man who had earlier slapped his son and he began cuffing that young man to the face. The other man described as a ‘trouble-maker’ then armed himself with a bottle and pelted same in the direction of the man whom his father was cuffing away on, but that bottle missed its target and struck Small to the face, damaging his eye and four teeth in the process.

He subsequently fell to the ground and had to be rushed to the hospital. On Wednesday, Charlene Semple, Small’s mother, told the Guyana Chronicle that she needs justice in the form of compensation for her son’s injuries. She said that her son will not be able to work for a prolonged period as he will be forced to stay out of the sun. Ms. Semple further stated that while the relatives of the errant boy who had pelted the bottle admitted that her son was not part of the fight and that the connecting of the bottle to his eye was an accident, they are not directly saying to her how they plan to compensate her, although they have been making mention about compensating the family.

The police have since got involved in the matter and already a statement has been taken from Small and his mother said this was done while he was in the hospital. This newspaper was also told that the police had picked up the father of the boy who had pelted the bottle and he was tasked with locating his son and taking him back to the police station where a statement will be taken. Relatives of the bottle- thrower and his father have since secured the services of an attorney.