…ending years of a troubled relationship
By Clifford Stanley
A series of arguments misunderstandings and soured relations between a West Berbice father and his 18-year-old son ended tragically Sunday morning when the youth slashed his the older man with a cutlass causing a fatal injury.
The dead man was identified as Collis Joseph 40 a cane harvester of Ithaca village.
Police were up Sunday afternoon searching for the eighteen year old Rishin Joseph who fled the scene shortly after the act.
Reports stated that the suspect lived separately from his father at another address at Ithaca from last year after the relationship between father and son began to sour.
Neighbours said that the lad had been suspected to have become involved in narcotic substance abuse.
“I talked with him once about his erratic behaviour ,” a villager said “but he was very dismissive and he actually told me that he was superhuman,” the source said.
Reports are that the suspect went to his fathers home brandishing a cutlass Saturday afternoon and found that the man was not at home.
The father apparently heard about his behaviour and himself armed with a cutlass went to the suspects home Sunday morning.
It was at this point that the final and fatal encounter occurred.
The body of the older Joseph is currently being stored at the mortuary at the New Amsterdam Hospital pending a post mortem examination.
The suspect was said to be hiding in the Ithaca backlands.
