– relatives fearful as assailant issues death threats to brother

A quarrel between two men over the physical assault of a woman turned deadly on Cornhill Street in the vicinity of Stabroek Market, Georgetown on Monday when during a heated confrontation one of the men was stabbed to death.
Dead is Richard Noel, 20, a vendor of Kitty, Georgetown. The father of one was released from prison February, 10, 2018. His body is currently at the Georgetown Public Hospital mortuary awaiting postmortem. Police are seeking the whereabouts of the alleged assailant Timothy McKenzie.

Reports indicate that Noel and his assailant are known to each other and a misunderstanding due to the physical assault the Noel’s sister recently, resulted in a heated argument on the aforementioned day in the vicinity of Stabroek Market.
During the heated confrontation the attacker who was armed with a knife approached the victim and dealt him two stabs to the left side of his chest. The victim collapsed and was taken to the GPH in an unconscious state where he examined by a doctor on duty, who treated and admitted him as a patient and was monitoring his condition until his succumbed Monday night.

Noel’s mother, Geranium Cliffe told the Guyana Chronicle that she last saw her son Monday morning and later that day he collected some money from his grandmother to buy medication for his son who is a toddler and was not well. “When he reached on the bus park the two boys approached him and he turn and walked away and they still go behind him and do what they had to do. He didn’t have problems with these guys his sister was assaulted by one of them,” she said.

Noting that her daughter had complained to Noel about the assault, the tearful mother said that the young man who killed her son apparently liked her daughter and he visited their home earlier in January, 2018 when her son was in prison and he assaulted the young lady in the yard.

Adding that the confrontation was reported to the Kitty Police Station, the mother of seven said the assailant came with a friend as a decoy to lure her daughter downstairs where she was assaulted. “He held on to her and when she asked him to loose, he cuffed her in her belly, she had her phone in her hand and she lashed him in his face and he run out the yard my big son was nowhere around because he was in jail,” she explained.
Reflecting on when the initial confrontation between her son and his assailant, Ms. Cliff said that it started Sunday last on the seawall when he was there with his brother and friends. “When they came across each other my son told him we ain’t come out here for no story and we don’t want no story, and then they left,” she said.

Acknowledging that her son Noel is a little hot tempered sometimes, the mother said that he was not vengeful and does not bear malice and did not deserve to die since he hardly spent time with his son who is a toddler. “The police know my son well and we are seeking justice, if he was the one who did the stabbing they would have already reached at my home and the attacker has sent threats saying that they will kill his brother next,” she explained.

One eyewitness said that that the attacker had a very long knife which he used to kill Noel before he fell into someone’s hands. “Big market is a big place and this bai with a long knife stab this man and no one ran to his rescue, this place is not easy at all, we were made to understand that the two boys that tackled him can always be seen liming under Demico House,” a friend of the family said.