Latest update December 12th, 2024 1:00 AM
Hacking off of mentally ill man’s hand…Conflicting reports surround Sophia chopping spree
The police are still gathering information relating to a brutal chopping-spree last Sunday in ‘A’ Field Sophia, Georgetown where a mentally ill man’s hand was hacked off and his brother-in-law sustained injuries.
While information regarding the incident is sketchy, one report is that the attack occurred after the mentally ill man, Paul Douglas, had set fire to his sister’s home.
Douglas is hospitalized at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) nursing several chop wounds. He lost his left wrist as a result of the attack.
Calvin Mercurius who sustained injuries to the head and neck was discharged from the hospital and placed on station bail. Police are looking for others who were involved in the melee.
Kaieteur News understands that ranks are experiencing difficulty in gathering information regarding the incident.
A police source yesterday said that when ranks went to the scene, no one wanted to say what had transpired.
Paul Douglas
He however explained that Douglas was previously involved in several incidents which had caught the attention of ranks at the Turkeyen Police Station.
According to information received, around midnight on Saturday (March 22, last), the mentally ill man set his mother’s Lot 207 Seventh Field Section ‘A’ Sophia home on fire. Luckily, the Guyana Fire Service responded on time.
The following day, he and his brother-in-law allegedly got into a fight and both men sustained injuries.
While Douglas’ mother is claiming that her son was attacked by Mercurius and a group of men, the cops said that they are having a difficult time identifying the other persons.
However, the police said that Douglas could have been charged for arson, had he not been mentally ill.
Douglas’s mother, in an interview yesterday, expressed her disappointment with the police for not doing enough to find her son’s attackers.
While providing conflicting information, the woman said that her daughter’s boyfriend and the group of men were waiting outside her home to attack her son when he exited the house. The woman claimed that one of the men was annoyed with her son because the son did not want him in the yard.
She said that when her son went outside, the men ran in and attacked him in her yard. She claimed too that her son attempted to run from his attackers and fell into a drain after which his attackers continued chopping him.
While Douglas’ mother claimed that the fire was started accidentally, she also alleged that she did not know the circumstances under which it was started and she had no idea who started it.
In one instance, she claimed that a man who abused her daughter regularly went into their home and her mentally ill son got upset and the fire subsequently started. She said too that neighbours said that Douglas was seen with a bucket trying to put out the fire.
When this newspaper visited the scene two Sundays ago, some residents alleged that Douglas was in the habit of ‘smoking’ and threatening villagers. It was claimed that he had an altercation with one of his sisters during which he struck her with a bottle and promised to burn down her apartment.
Around midnight, Douglas allegedly set a mattress in his sister’s room alight.
The Guyana Fire Service responded promptly and the blaze was contained.
Some reports suggest that Mercurius confronted Douglas after he set the room alight.
According to reports, the mentally ill man became angry when Mercurius confronted him, and he allegedly dealt the man several chops before the man’s relatives came to the victim’s aid.
Based on reports, after the other man’s family realized the severity of the attack, they in turn attacked Douglas and chopped him severely.
Neighbours say that the Douglas, who has his ‘moments’ will normally be in the area brandishing a cutlass and threatening to harm residents.
Another neighbour said that Douglas was taken away many times by police because of his erratic behaviour but as soon as he is released from hospital he always returns home.
Neighbours had contacted the police on the morning before the house was set on fire, because they were concerned with his ‘odd’ behaviour.
When the police visited neighbours said that the ranks were unable to remove the man from the house and they subsequently left.
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