Man allegedly chopped to death over rum

A friendship came to a deadly end on Tuesday, October 7, when two employees of a construction site at Diamond sustained cutlass wounds during an altercation.{{more}}

Dead is 58-year-old Ulric ‘Banky’ John, of Kingstown. His co-worker, 40-year-old Steve Primus, of Barrouallie, was rushed to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Tuesday morning with a severe wound to his back and one to his hand.

They were both employees of Knights Construction. Two of their co-workers who knew them well and discovered John’s body in a car at the construction site told SEARCHLIGHT they believe the men lost their cool after a quarrel which had started the day before over a petit of rum. Both John and Primus shared a small home on the construction site.

Grafton ‘Big Shot’ Ollivierre, an employee of Knights Construction, was the first person to discover blood stains at the site when he turned up for work just after 8 a.m.

“I see blood all over. I start to call Banky and Steve. I knock on Banky’s side of the house, but didn’t get an answer. At the same time the door was wide open. I knock Steve’s side of the house, no answer,” said Ollivierre. Ollivierre noted that he went to alert Robert ‘Jinny’ Antoine, another co-worker who lives nearby.



Co-workers: Grafton ‘Big Shot’ Ollivierre (left) and Robert ‘Jinny’ Antoine.

“After Big Shot wake me, I come up here and I see blood all over the place. I say ‘wey de man dem dey’. I know dey does be in the car when they drunk, so I go around and open the door. I meet Banky in there with his tripe (intestine) in his hand and the white of his eye turning up. I say ‘Big Shot oh (expletive) boy! Look Banky dey with his tripe outside’,” said Antoine, as he recalled the horrific experience.

Ollivierre said when he rushed to the car, “Banky give me two wink then he put his head down”.

The men said they called out to two women living nearby for help and later telephoned their boss.

It was a brutal, shocking end to years of friendship.

“That thing should have never happened. We ain’t dey in chopping up thing. Two of them used to cook together and drink together. I feel so bad when I remember this thing. I didn’t even eat for the day,” said Antoine.

Antoine said on Monday afternoon when he arrived at work Primus had been complaining that he had given John $4 to purchase a petit of rum and John had drunk it all when he (Primus) was asleep. Antoine said a scuffle took place between Primus and John before Primus was able to retrieve his money. Antoine recalled that Primus took the money and purchased some more rum, and Primus, John and himself drank.

“Everything was nice after that,” said Antoine. However, he said from all indications, on Tuesday morning something changed.

The killing came as a shock to the volatile Diamond community as persons lamented the fourth killing in their neighbourhood since it became a residential area.