– suspect arrested

AN argument over food and alcohol led to the fatal chopping of 40-year-old Mark Griffith, a labourer of Lot 49 Smithfield New Amsterdam, Berbice.

The incident occurred at around 17:10 hours on Sunday in front of the victim’s house. The suspect, identified as 38-year-old ‘Smokey’, has been arrested and remains in custody.

Griffith’s sister, Samanda David, told this newspaper that he was imbibing at the house most of the day when the suspect passed and invited him to go consume alcohol at a shop close by.

David said her mother warned Griffith not to go with the suspect since he [the suspect] was highly intoxicated and was heard cursing on the road earlier.

David said, she too warned him not to go. Griffith, however, ignored his family’s warning and left with the suspect.

“I say you don’t hear and you gon feel. I came back in and went into the hammock and fall asleep then I heard ‘Samanda! Samanda! Come’. When I come out, I see the suspect with the cutlass and my brother in the trench,” David recalled.

Griffith was taken to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital where he died while receiving treatment. Investigations are ongoing.