By Leroy Smith
Assistant Commissioner of Police and ‘A’ Division Commander, Clifton Hicken told reporters today (Tuesday, April 18, 2017) that Trinidadian Soca Artiste, Rodney LeBlanc, popularly known as Benjai, was assaulted by some who is known to him.
A drunken fete filled with soca music and gyrating did not end well for regional soca artiste, Benjai at the weekend after he was attacked by an unknown assailant outside of the Palm Court Nightclub on Main Street, Georgetown.
Benjai was struck with a bottle to his head resulting in him seeking medical attention here in Guyana.
On Tuesday, Commander Hicken told reporters that “we learned that they were all in a group and they were having fun and apparently there was an altercation with two of the persons in the group with them, and it ended up outside. He (Benjai) was in the process going to part a feud from escalating when it is alleged that someone who was in a group with them earlier drinking, lashed him in his head with a beer bottle.”
The incident took place on Monday morning, shortly after the club closed off its activity where Benjai was slated to perform.
Benjai was brought to Guyana by the Pulse Entertainment Company. Efforts to reach the proprietor of that entertainment company to inquire about the security arrangements in place for the artiste proved futile.
A regular patron who was present at the club told the News Room that the artiste was standing outside of the club with a group of females, reportedly bracing on a car belonging to another patron.
As the owner of the vehicle attempted to leave the club, he requested that the group which included Benjai to remove from the vehicle.
However, the request was reportedly denied, and it was also during that process that another patron emerged from inside of the club and lashed the artiste to the head with a bottle.
It is believed that the incident is as a result of an earlier confrontation between the artiste and the perpetrator over remarks the artiste made the female companion of the patron.
It is reported that the patron on whose car the women along with Benjai were resting, was not connected to the incident or to the individual who struck the artiste. Hicken also denied reports that a firearm was drawn at any point during the incident.
“We’ve asked for some footage; we’re doing some work at the moment. I don’t want to say much about that now because the police are still investigating. We’ve had some names…and I think we are focused in the right direction and it someone he know too,” Hicken said.
The injuries suffered by the artiste were treated at a private hospital before he boarded a plane back to his home land.
The incident has also attracted the attention of the regional media, one of which reported that the artiste would be taking criminal and civil legal actions against the perpetrator.
