Latest update December 23rd, 2024 3:40 AM
Majority of crimes in Port Kaituma linked to Domestic violence, alcohol
Kaieteur News – Police have ascertained that alcohol and domestic violence are responsible for the majority of murders and violent behaviours that occur in Port Kaituma, a Region One, North West District (NWD) community.
Port Kaituma is popularly known as the home of Jonestown, a place where in 1978 more than 900 people were led by their cult leader, Jim Jones, to commit suicide.
Today Jonestown looks more like a ghost town but the rest of Port Kaituma is thriving on an economy fuelled by mining, farming and entrepreneurship. However, one of the major security concerns for police ranks stationed there is that alcohol and domestic violence seem to be a major contributor to crimes.
Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Thomas-Wilson being interviewed by Deputy CCU Director, Stan Goveia
At least this is what female police prosecutor working in Port Kaituma, Sergeant Thomas-Wilson, told Deputy Director of the Police Force’s Corporate Communications Unit (CCU), Stan Gouveia.
The disclosure was made as Gouveia conducted an interview with Thomas-Wilson during a visit to the community recently.
After sharing a little about Port Kaituma and the migrants who have taken up residence there with the locals, such as the Brazilians and Venezuelans, the police prosecutor spoke of the common crimes that ranks are tasked with dealing with.
She told Gouveia that, “Domestic murders, Domestic violence…” are the main crimes committed, even as she explained that “Domestic murders would mean, when they consume alcohol, they get uncontrollable and it converts into a spirit fatality meaning alcohol fatality.”
Concerned about this state of affairs, Thomas-Wilson said that ranks are very active in engaging the communities in Port Kaituma to raise awareness.
Indeed, based on media reports, domestic violence and alcohol have been linked to a number of crimes, especially murders in the area.
Among them was a murder committed last May in which a 50-year-old woman confessed to stabbing her husband to death after a High Wine drinking session at their home located at 10 Miles, Port Kaituma.
Police identified her as Inese Richards, and the man she allegedly killed was 43-year-old Felix Henry, a chainsaw operator.
Still on the run for the murder of his countryman, Venezuelan national, Luis Jose Medina Zapata
She was charged with manslaughter and was released on $750,000 bail. The woman is currently awaiting her next court date in a matter of days – August 5, 2022.
She had told investigators that on the night of May 19, last, she and her husband were drinking together and that session ended with an argument. She claimed that it turned violent after Henry armed himself with a cutlass and began chasing her around the house.
She had further alleged that in an attempt to defend herself, she rushed to the kitchen and armed herself with a knife. Henry allegedly followed her there with the cutlass and she reportedly plunged the knife into his neck.
He fell to the ground in a sitting position and she went to bed. The woman told police that she had only realised that he was dead after waking up the following morning.
A month before Richards allegedly killed her husband, there was another alcohol related murder that occurred in the area that also stemmed from a domestic argument.
On April 15, last, a 19-year-old Venezuelan man, Luis Jose Medina Zapata, better known as ‘Kemos’ reportedly stabbed and killed his fellow countryman after he caught him drinking with his wife at their home located at Oronoque, Port Kaituma.
Medina, who is still on the run, was labelled the “jealous teen” by the media. The man he is accused of killing is 23-year-old Felipe Galaviz.
According to reports, Medina had come home late on the evening in question and found Galaviz and his wife drinking together. He became suspicious and an argument erupted between the three. It ended moments later with Galaviz being stabbed to death.
There are other matters of domestic violence and alcohol related incidents that have occurred in Port Kaituma for this year alone.
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