Dead is 16-year-old Justin Smith of Number 47 Village. His wounded body was picked up from the parapet along the Corentyne Highway at Number 47 Village. The motorbike he was riding was a short distance away. The teenager is believed to have been beaten to death by villagers. The teen’s mother Dhanraji Seenauth called ‘Anita’, alleged that her son was beaten by three young men from the same village.

Seenauth told this publication that there was a hole at the back of her son’s head which she believes was caused when he was lashed off the motorcycle he was riding. The woman said there was what appeared to be a defensive chop wound to his hand and another chop wound to his back. “Something was wrong with the motorbike, and the bike rope wasn’t riding speed. So whilst he riding they start pelting slush on him, all on his foot and his hand. Then they put a lash on his head and he fall down with the bike. According to how I see his body, I could tell it is not an accident. The bike is there, it didn’t crash, but when he fall down, the bike get bruised at the side,” the mother disclosed.

Seenauth said that her son had an ongoing feud with some of his former schoolmates. She said some of the matters got the attention of the courts. According to Seenauth, about one week before her son’s demise, there was an altercation, and her son threatened to retaliate. Police are yet to issue a statement on the incident. The grieving mother also related several other incidents during which her son was allegedly harassed by teenage villagers.

“One time, he took a pressure wash while on the road. he put the pressure wash on the boy, and a car miss knock him down. Another time they had a car and you run my son off the road. My son had an electric bike, that was when the electric bike had just come out. My son had to ride in the trench to save himself because you running with the car to knock him down.” (INewsGuyana)