The residents say that they are fearful of the man, who seems to be enjoying immunity from the police. Some of them say that, unless the police take action, his next crime could be murder.

Despite threats by neighbours to call the police, the man struck again at around 03:00hrs yesterday morning. According to reports of eyewitnesses, the man used a cutlass to wound Eusi Johnson of Joseph Pollydore Street, Lodge on his head.

Johnson said that he had attended a party at the Bloomingsdale Night Club on Durban Street, and was standing at Haley and D’Urban Streets, Wortmanville with a few friends consuming alcohol.

He said that the man (name given) was also a part of the group. He said that after the first bottle of rum was emptied, the group nominated the accused to go to the bar for a refill. Johnson said that the man subsequently left and returned some 45 minutes later, informing the group that he had purchased the rum at another liquor bar.

Johnson said that he became annoyed because the man had flouted the initial instructions. He said that he asked the man why he chose to go against the group’s wishes, and an argument ensued.

The man became enraged and attacked Johnson with a cutlass. The injured Johnson said that, in self defence, he grabbed a knife and also wounded his attacker, but not before he (Johnson) had suffered a gaping wound to his head. He was also chopped on his left hand. The gaping injuries required more than 15 sutures.

Eyewitnesses to the incident said that a team of police officers arrived on the scene, but instead of arresting the warring men, they decided to issue a warning and send them on their way. Johnson subsequently lodged a complaint at the Alberttown Police Station, where he was subsequently instructed to seek medical attention, to allow the police to conduct inquiries into the matter.

Kaieteur News visited the home of the man accused of chopping Johnson, but was unable to speak with him, because he had left early yesterday morning. The neighbours said that his hands and other parts of his body were swathed in bandages.

None of his neighbours seem to have anything good to say of the man. One of them, who identified herself as Paulette Daniels, said that in July 2002 she had had a confrontation with the man. She said that the man had lost his cool and attacked her with a cutlass.

She provided a medical certificate that outlined the extent of her injuries. They included a fracture to the right hand and an inability to move the fourth and fifth digits of her hand. The woman also suffered injuries to her tendon.

She has since been unable to perform major tasks with her hand. The woman said that the matter had since been addressed at the level of the High Courts, but after a prolonged trial, the man was exonerated.

Instead of showing remorse, the man returned shortly afterwards to chalk up another offence. The victim, a mother of three, said that the incident had left her so traumatized that even now she gets goose pimples remembering it.

She said that the man was a very good friend, but unknowing to her, he had nurtured secret ambitions of having a sexual liaison with her. She found this out shortly after she had delivered her first child.

She said that the man, who was her neighbour at the time, asked her to lend him a pair of scissors and some rice to cook. She said that she took the items over to his home and he invited her inside. No sooner had she passed the door than the man attacked her, demanding that she have sex with him.

She said that she rebuffed his advances, but the man turned up the music to drown out her screams. He then ripped off her blouse, but before he could get any further, her nephew, who apparently heard her screams above the din, prised open a window and rescued her. The woman said that the man was charged and subsequently incarcerated for five years.

Even as the woman recited her story, several persons came forward with harrowing tales of their own.

A man who said he lived nearby recounted that he had had a confrontation with the accused. He said that the man had dealt him a blow to his mouth, resulting in the loss of several teeth. He never received justice.

The neighbours said that a man who once lived in D’Urban Street had had his belly slashed by the man after the two were involved in a confrontation. The slashed man has since died of natural causes, but he was never given his day in court.

Another neighbour decided to take the law into his own hands and inflicted an injury to the eyes of this violent man, causing him to lose his sight in that eye.

Many persons came up with harrowing tales of their experiences with the accused. Some victims sported chops to their heads, others to their bodies. Some displayed scars on their faces, while others displayed scars on their legs.

The residents said that they have made numerous reports to the police, to no avail. They are now at their wit’s end. One person opined that the only justice they will ever get will have to be vigilante style.