– suspect arrested after leaving slippers, bicycle on scene

TWO days before his birth anniversary, a father of three of Lot 25, Belmonte Mahaica, East Coast Demerara (ECD) was stabbed to death in his yard on Monday during a suspected robbery.

Dead is 34-year-old Fareez Yassem. The fruits and vegetable vendor was stabbed more than a dozen times about the body and was found lying in a drain by his wife and neighbours crying out for help. The suspect, who left behind a bicycle and slippers at the scene of the crime, is in police custody assisting with investigations. He admitted that the bicycle and slippers found at the scene were his, but is unable to give an alibi as to his whereabouts at the time of the killing. The man’s death has left the community, his friends and relatives in a state of shock. The body is currently at the Lyken Funeral Parlour awaiting a post-mortem examination.

Reports are that the man, who was a former employee of Banks DIH Ltd., was stabbed five times in the back with a sharp object, four stabs to the neck, two stabs in the jaw, three to his left arm and other lacerations about the body. When he was discovered, he was wearing a pair of short grey pants, three gold rings, one gold band, one gold chain and one stud gold earring.

Guyana Chronicle was told that about 02:00hrs on Monday, the vendor who plies his trade on the Mahaica, ECD Public Road was awakened by a strange sound emanating from a bond in the lower flat of his two-storeyed wooden house.
He decided to venture into the yard to inspect the bond when he was confronted by the perpetrator who attacked him with a sharp instrument. His wife was then awakened upon hearing the rumble outside. She then heard her husband cry out “Ow bai, aww bai, ow” at which point she realised he was not in bed so she rushed out and started to shout for him but got no answer. She then called out loudly to her neighbour and when they responded, Yassem was found motionless in a drain in their yard.
She had told neighbours that it was unusual for her husband to venture outside during the wee hours of the morning.

In an interview with this publication, one relative called “Jason” said he had locked up his home and moved out of the area because of the negativity and crime in the community. “I had asked him what he was doing for Mother’s Day and he tell me that he gal na feel to go nowhere, so I said alright man, leff am for a next day and we will carry them out another day,” he said while noting that Yassem sold his supplies from a stall in front of his supermarket.

He described Fareez Yassem as a man who worked hard and who had little time to waste, especially around rum shops or anything that was not developing his family.
“When his wife was hollering for help, all the man them was drunk and in bed and is only the woman dem come out,” Jason said while reflecting on what Yassem wife had told him. Adding that he had previously warned Fareez Yassem not to ever venture outside his house when it was so late in the night, Jason who is the owner of a supermarket, said that he was previously robbed and would never venture into his yard alone if there is anything amiss, since bandits are always lurking in the darkness. “This area is known for thieves; people house does get break in often, all that police do is just come and take fingerprints and the rest is history. People need to be made an example, thieves getting away with too much in this country, and when people decide to react, then people in authority saying something, but when people getting robbed daily no one in authority is heard condemning anything or making anyone an example, but is only time…,” another relative said. One resident said: “Another young life gone, a man who makes an honest living and the senseless killings continue by those who have no respect for life and who wants to live from the sweat of others.”