Suspected killer caught trying to flee to Suriname

Nov 10, 2013 News

Cane Grove murder…

– brother was trying to protect sister from abusive husband

A Cane Grove, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara man, who stabbed his wife’s brother to death on Friday night, failed in his bid to escape justice while attempting to flee to neighbouring Suriname.
Hamid Lattiff, called ‘Crapo’ or ‘Lil Boy’ was nabbed at Springlands by local police who had been alerted to his plan and quickly set up a dragnet of their own to capture him.

Captured: Hamid Latiff

“We hear that he heading to Suriname and we called the police and they contacted them at Springlands,” a relative of the victim told this newspaper.
Latiff stabbed 16-year-old Mulchand Murilall, who was trying to protect his sister, Vashti, who had recently severed a relationship with the alleged killer.
Murilall’s relatives are desperately hoping that this time around they get some sort of justice, since after more than a year, his grandmother’s murder remains unsolved.
The young man was stabbed to death by his sister’s reputed husband, Hamid Latiff, outside a wedding house in his village on Friday night.
Latiff was recently released from prison where he was on remand after facing charges for assaulting the woman.
Police in a press release said that they are investigating the murder of Mulchand Murilall, 16, of Patwah Scheme, Cane Grove, East Coast Demerara, which occurred about 21:00 hours on Friday.
Police said that their investigations have revealed that Munilall was confronted by his sister’s reputed husband who was armed with a knife and during the confrontation, he was fatally stabbed to his chest and under his left arm.
“The suspect then attacked his reputed wife but she was rescued by residents and escaped unhurt.
The suspect escaped from the scene but was arrested by the police at Springlands, Berbice, about 09:00 hours yesterday and is in police custody,” the statement from Eve Leary said.
The suspect had been remanded to prison on a charge resulting from assaulting his reputed wife and was released from prison on Thursday.
According to information reaching this newspaper, on Friday afternoon the teenager had followed his sister to a nearby shop after learning that her estranged reputed husband was stalking her.
On their way back the young man stopped at a wedding house not far from their home and it was there that he was attacked by Latiff.
According to Vashti Murilall, the alleged killer had threatened her earlier on Friday as she was coming home from work.
“He run me with de knife and me run away from he,” the woman related.

Mulchand Murilall

The couple who has a son between them, separated about three months ago, but Latiff would still try to woo the woman back into a relationship. He became violent when the woman spurned his advances.
Vashti Murilall said that after Latiff threatened her on Friday, a day after his release from prison, she contacted the police.
Sensing that his sister was in danger, 16-year-old Mulchand decided to accompany her to the police station.
While returning home they stopped at a wedding house where Mulchand met some of his friends and chatted with them briefly.
“All me hear ah voice like me brother, ah didn’t hear wha he seh but is just he voice I hear. When I watch, de man done shove de knife in he, he done bore me brother and throw he into de trench,” Vashti Murilall told this newspaper.
She said that she began to scream and alerted her uncle who was also with her. Together they rushed to Mulchand’s aid.
But as she was going, her reputed husband turned his attention to her and tried to stab her too but his effort was thwarted by the woman’s uncle who grabbed her and pulled her to safety.
She eventually managed to run away while the killer made good his escape.
In the meantime, residents who converged on the scene, pulled Mulchand’s motionless body from the trench; he was already dead.
His mother, Jasmattie, heard her daughter’s screams from her home a short distance away.
“Me run out; there is me son; he done dead, is sheer blood on he skin,” the grieving mother stated.
Her husband Khrishna was miles away on his farm in the backlands when the tragedy occurred.
He told this newspaper that even though it was late in the night, when he received word of his only son’s death he immediately started up his boat and began the four-hour journey to find out what had really transpired.
“When me reach, me see me wife sit down. She tell me dat me son done, me nah gat son no more. She tell me he brother-in-law bore he,” Khrishna Murilall said.
His son’s death comes at a time when he is still mourning the murder of his mother, 63-year-old Pulmattie Ramai, whose partly nude body was discovered in the Cane Grove backlands days after she had left her home to go fishing.
No one has been held for her murder.
“Now dem gone with me son again…Me want de law fuh know wha dem ah try fuh do with me, me can do more dan wha dem ah do….He kill a boy innocently; he kill me son fuh nothing at all,” Khrishna Murilall said.