– during heated argument

THIRTY-year-old Jason DeFlorimonte, a father of three young boys, was killed in the wee hours of Saturday morning allegedly by his neighbour, businessman Orin Bacchus.
Bacchus was reportedly entertaining guests at his Visitor’s Inn guest house on Fifth Avenue, in suburban Subryanville when the incident occurred.

According to what was told to the Guyana Chronicle by an aunt of the deceased, her nephew and his girlfriend were having an argument at the front of their yard, which is located just opposite the business place.

During that misunderstanding, she said, a handyman who works for the businessman and is also known to the deceased, intervened and an argument ensued between them instead.
Reports are that the two pugilists ended up taking their argument into the lobby of the business place, causing the proprietor, Bacchus, to intervene and ask Jason to leave.
His doing so caused an argument to ensue between himself and Jason, and somewhere during the course of the exchange, the businessman reportedly whipped out his firearm and shot his opponent about his body, causing him to collapse and die as he attempted to run over to his home.

The dead man’s aunt said that she was awakened from her sleep by her son, who told her that someone had gotten shot and killed next door at the bar, but little did he know that it was his cousin.

The woman said it wasn’t until she ventured outside and saw the place in confusion that she realised that it was her nephew lying on the roadway, eyes rolling in his head and gasping for breath.

According to her, she immediately asked persons to call the police and the ambulance, which they did.

She also recalled the businessman going on the defensive when she confronted him about what he’d done. “When I approached Mr. Bacchus,” she said, “he was like, ‘I had to shoot he! I had to shoot he! He was violating me!’”

And while at the hospital, she said, she noticed that her nephew seemed to have taken some four gunshots, most of which were to the region of the chest. One, however, appeared to have hit him in the back.

She further stated that while at the police station, she overheard the businessman and his handyman giving the police their version of the story.

Further, she also stated that the businessman’s blood alcohol level was way above 200 while that of his handyman was above 170.

The dead man’s aunt said that she has known the businessman since 1997, and that he’s always been very arrogant and aggressive. He’s also been known to boast about his connections, and that he comes from a privileged family.

Word in the Subryanville community is that the man has on several occasions even threatened to shoot residents for the least little thing, including the now deceased Jason, with whom he had had several misunderstandings.

This being the case, Jason’s family is now calling for justice to be served, as they are concerned about the businessman and his family’s rumoured connections and their ability to use their wealth to ensure the freedom of the man who took Jason’s life.
“We don’t want revenge,” one relative said. “We just want justice to be served. We don’t want it to only be seen as being served, but we want it to actually be served in this matter,” he told the Guyana Chronicle on Saturday afternoon.

DeFlorimonte is survived by his wife, girlfriend, three children, his mother and three siblings, along with other relatives and friends.