By Bibi Khatoon
A 58-year old man is in police custody for allegedly chopping 23-year-old Sangeeta Gopaul at her 74 Railway View, Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara home. The incident occurred at about 23:00hrs on Sunday, November 19.
News Room spoke to the woman’s relatives at the Georgetown Public Hospital who alleged that the suspect, Samuel Williams, has been making advances towards the 23-year-old for some time.
The woman’s Grandmother who only gave her name as Gita said the man would usually visit a shop which she [Gita] owns and he would try to form conversations with Gopaul and after being constantly ignored, he began visiting her granddaughter’s workplace at Parika, East Bank Essequibo.
While the police have stated that the suspect shared a relationship with the victim, her family has denied such.
They believed that it was her refusal of his advances which led him to commit the crime. The suspect, using a cutlass, completely severed the woman’s thumb and index fingers on her right hand. He also chopped her to the neck and her right foot which received 25 stitches thus far.
“He chop she very bad, he chop she like when yuh chop fish,” the teary-eyed grandmother said.
After committing the act, the suspect jumped the fence on the eastern side of the yard and made good his escape.
Gita said she believes the man’s intent was to kill her granddaughter but after she screamed, persons residing in the same building contacted family members who rushed over and took her to seek medical attention.
“When we go, she lay down in the pool of blood. Take her to the hospital, there was no ambulance at the Cottage Hospital, then there was no driver to drive it, then they had a driver and them nah allow the driver. When we come to Best hospital, we determined and them say let the boy drive it and bring she to Georgetown hospital,” the grandmother recounted.
Williams was later captured by police.
Gopaul’s condition is listed as stable at the hospital, while the suspect is expected to be arraigned at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court.
