Man, 27, chopped dead by male relative

STACY MOORE

AN ELDERLY mother risked her life to save one of her sons when she attempted to part a cutlass attack between her son and another close male relative at the family home in Penal on Saturday afternoon.

Sadly, the efforts of 71-year-old Dhanrajiyia Thompson failed when her son Paul Mark Teeluck, 27, was brutally chopped to death by his attacker. The assailant also lived at the family’s Lachoos Road, Penal home. Teeluck, who was chopped to the chest and abdominal area, was pronounced dead at the San Fernando General Hospital. Thompson sustained a fractured arm when she attempted to wrest the cutlass away from the attacker. Up to late yesterday the 38-year old-suspect was being interviewed by members of the Homicide Region Three District.

According to a police report, at about 6pm Teeluck and the close male relative were talking inside the house when an argument started.

The argument escalated and Teeluck and the close relative continued to argue in the yard. Police said the relative walked away and, within seconds, returned with a sharpened cutlass and began to chop Teeluck.

Police said Teeluck’s mother was sleeping when she heard her son’s screams. She ran to the yard and stood between the two men begging them to stop. Thompson attempted to grab the cutlass from the relative who refused to give it to her and continued to chop a screaming Teeluck. A video which has gone viral on social media shows Teeluck covered in blood lying in the yard moments before he died. Thompson was taken to the Siparia Health Facility and later transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital where she remains in a stable condition. Investigators said she suffered a fractured arm.

Villagers said minutes before the brutal attack, Teeluck and the relative were seen drinking alcohol at a nearby bar. Residents expressed shock over the attack.

Thompson, neighbours said, would not have wanted to see Teeluck or the relative hurt as she loved them both. One villager said he believed the men may have been intoxicated and the attacker was not in his “right state of mind” when he chopped Teeluck. Raquel Lawrence said she knew Teeluck and the suspect to be very close.

“They would argue at times, but nothing ever escalated like this,” Lawrence said. “I just can’t believe it.” She said everyone was still in a state of shock. “We see them liming together and to know what happened I really don’t know what to say.” Lawrence said she heard Thompson screaming.

“I rushed across to the house to see Mark (Teeluck) bleeding. Then I later learnt that (name called ) chopped him,”a still visibly shaken Lawrence said. An autopsy on Teeluck’s body is expected to be performed at the Forensic Science Centre today.

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