18-year-old miner stabbed to death in early morning robbery

Jun 09, 2015 News

The trend of a murder almost every day continued yesterday with the death of

Keith Daniels (right) with his brother Neil.

18-year-old miner Keith Daniels.
The young man was stabbed to death during a robbery that saw him relieved of his cellular phone and a small amount of cash.
The incident occurred around 02:00 hours, less than a one-minute walk from Daniels’ 42 Public Road, Kitty home.
Kaieteur News was told that Daniels’ older brother, Neil, had left the home around 9:30pm to purchase a phone card with the intention of returning shortly after.
However, while on the road, he met with some friends and he decided to “lime” with them at the seawall. He said that about half an hour later he was joined by Keith who also apparently felt the need for an evening on the seawall.
It was just about 1:30am when police closed off the sporting and the brothers left for home to be attacked by the men whom Daniels claimed to have never seen.
According to reports, they noticed three ‘young’ men standing near the head of the alleyway that led to their aunt’s house.
Since they felt safe in each other’s company, the two brothers continued towards their house with the older sibling leading the way.
The older Daniels recalled walking on the outside of the road as his smaller brother walked close to the men. He recalled that just as they passed the men, he heard one of them heckle “Yo, yo, yo”.
Neil Daniels said that his brother, in response to the common street call, spun around and one of the men grabbed him by his jersey collar before reaching to his side and pulling out a knife.
Daniels said he immediately realized that the men were about to rob his brother.
He quickly ran home for help, but by the time he managed to awake other family members and return to the scene, his brother was lying motionless on his back on the ground with stab wounds about his body.
Keith Daniels received two stabs, not too far apart in the middle of his chest and another one just beneath his left side breast.
The badly injured youth was rushed to the Woodlands Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
The two brothers, both of whom are miners, are originally from the Yarakita Village, North West District but were on one of their many visits to their aunt’s Public Road, Kitty residence.
It was only recently due to the heavy rain fall that the men aborted their work in the Region Eight District to enjoy some leisure time in the city. They were scheduled to return to the interior any time soon.
The incident has devastated their aunt who had advised Keith against leaving the house on Sunday night.
This newspaper understands that Daniels disregarded the warning and went out to enjoy the regular Sunday night ‘brightness’ at the Kitty Seawall.
“I told him not to go… Only God in heaven knows what he was doing at the seawalls,” the inconsolable aunt who wept bitterly told this newspaper.
Kaieteur News understands that the teen left the home after his aunt would have retired to bed.
Melissa, a cousin, who was still trying to come to grips with his untimely demise, described the young man as a very peaceful person.
She said that after spending some three weeks at the home, it was impossible for her cousin to have a large sum of money.
According to her, he was killed for a ‘cheap’ cell phone and a few ‘bucks’.
Keith Daniels was the fifth of nine siblings.
The matter was reported to the police CID Headquarters, Eve Leary, Queenstown Police Station and Kitty Police station. Investigations are continuing.