San Fernando police spent last evening searching drug blocks around Mucarapo Street and Paradise cemetery for the suspect who hacked a homeless man to death a stone’s throw away from the police station. Around 4 pm yesterday, passersby saw the victim, known only as Barry, running down Harris Street bleeding from wounds to his upper body.
He eventually collapsed on the sidewalk at the corner of Court Street where he bled until police came and took him to the San Fernando General Hospital. He was pronounced dead at the Accident and Emergency Department of the hospital Police said Barry was in an abandoned lot of land along Harris Street where he was involved in an argument with another man behind a wall. It appeared he and the suspect had a fight and he was chopped several times.
Police learned the suspect was seen running away with a bloodied cutlass and was also wounded. He was identified as a former convict from Siparia who was recently released from jail on shooting and robbery charges. A team of police, including Snr Supt Cecil Santana, Insp Don Gajadhar, Sgt Toolah Julien, processed the crime scene and co-ordinated a search for the suspect but he was still on the run up to last night.
Two homeless men who slept nearby said Barry was a drug peddler who often did odd jobs at Ali’s Doubles, Harris Street. They said Barry was seen at a drug block near the San Fernando Market earlier in the day. “He was running down the road and he collapsed, bleeding on the ground. It was a lawyer who came and told us, ‘Look a man bleeding on the ground.’ We only know him as Barry. He does be by Ali’s washing clothes,” one homeless man said.
He added: “He was on the ground there asking for water so I took some water to give him but the police said not to give him cold water and they gave him warm water. They were already on the phone with someone from the hospital. “Then we saw him start to beat up on the ground and hit his head and that was it. He just stopped moving. The police put him in the van and carried him to hospital. I hope he ain’t dead because I don’t like to hear people dying.”
There were several CCTV cameras on nearby buildings which police hope will help them to capture and charge the suspect.