One person is now in Police custody following the murder of a Georgetown resident in Water Street, Bagotstown, East Bank Demerara (EBD) on Tuesday morning.
Dead is Mark Ifill of Norton Street, Georgetown.
According to eyewitnesses, at approximately 10:45h on Tuesday, Ifill – who was described as the neighbourhood “junkie” – was stabbed to death by a Bagotstown resident.
Based on reports received, Ifill was filling bottles of water along a pathway which led to the house of the accused.
The 31-year-old accused reportedly approached him and demanded that he remove from the location and “stop fulling water”. However, Ifill ignored him and continued to fill his containers and load them into his wheelbarrow. This enraged the alleged perpetrator who reportedly started a fight with the now dead man.
This newspaper understands that the two were engaged in a fist fight for a few minutes when a gun fell out of the accused’s clothing. The alleged perpetrator reportedly attempted to shoot the “neighbourhood handyman”, but soon realised that he had no bullets.
As such, the fist fight continued and a neighbour reportedly went out to ‘part the fight’, telling the two men to “take a break”.
The men stopped fighting and Ifill reportedly went back to filling his bottles until a woman described as “the sergeant’s wife” told him to leave. Ifill then responded: “Okay, madam. I respect you, so I won’t full water here.”
Upon hearing this, the accused rushed into his yard, but was stopped by the same woman – who is also his neighbour – and she reportedly tried to calm him down before letting him go home to his pregnant wife and five children.
The neighbour reportedly told the suspect to think about his family before doing “anything stupid”. She also cautioned him that “the junkie ain’t got nothing to lose” but he does –referencing his pregnant wife and children.
Nevertheless, the alleged perpetrator refused to heed the woman’s advice and went into his home, armed himself with a knife, and went out to confront the “junkie” again.
It was during this ‘face-off’ that Ifill hit the accused numerous times with a bat, as he tried to defend himself against the knife in the hands of the perpetrator.
However, this attempt by the now dead man proved futile, as he was stabbed once to his abdomen and succumbed shortly after, since no one in the neighbourhood wanted to transport him to the hospital in their vehicle.
The Police were informed and the accused was detained, after he reportedly hid the murder weapon.
The accused is said to be no stranger to breaching the law, since he was involved in another incident back in 2012 which left the then 26-year-old Mark Solomon of Nonpariel, East Coast Demerara (ECD), dead. (Ramona Luthi)
