STREET JUSTICE

UPDATE:

AT least two men dealt street justice to the man who was held after a woman was fatally stabbed at the Croisee in San Juan yesterday afternoon.

Police who arrived at the scene minutes after the stabbing, eventually took the man to the San Juan police post and placed him in a cell.

Anita Bahadur, a 27-year-old mother of four and a restaurant worker, was stabbed allegedly by the father of one of her children. Witnesses told Newsday yesterday, the man was sitting at the Croisee, on the Priority Bus Route, at about 2.30 pm. When Bahadur arrived at the Croisee, the man crossed the Bus Route with a knife in his hand and grabbed her. He stabbed her once in the chest and the head before people intervened. The man tried to run away but was held by witnesses who beat him and held him until police arrived. Bahadur was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mount Hope, where she died shortly after. Newsday spoke to Garvin Texiera, one of the men who made the citizen’s arrest. Texiera, a street vendor, said he was selling his goods when he saw the commotion. “I saw the man, and a woman saw blood and told me,” Texiera said. “I ran over to see what was happening. When he started to run, we held him and beat him. We didn’t want no talk with that man. Is a woman he do that to. Never attack a woman, and if you attack a woman in San Juan we will deal with you.” A woman cried upon hearing about the incident.

“They are killing our mothers,” she said.

“This society has gone through, no one has no respect for anyone. They don’t know about God, they don’t know love, they don’t know about anything.”

Relatives told Newsday Bahadur was a woman who endured a life of trials and abuse at the hands of violent men.

As a child, she witnessed a close male relative abuse her mother, who was ultimately stabbed to death by the man. As she grew up, she bore four children and lived in an impoverished area in Champs Fleurs. Child Protection Unit members took her first three children into their care, but later placed them with Bahadur’s sister. Her youngest child, a boy, was with her until he too was put into foster care. Newsday was told Bahadur would visit the child on a weekly basis.

Newsday was also told that the suspect in custody had attacked her with a knife previously.

The man was arrested and jailed but released less than two weeks ago. Relatives said as soon as he got out of jail, he visited Bahadur and threatened her life. Relatives said he told her that he would kill her, and if he didn’t do it, someone else will. She made a report at the San Juan Police Station, and up to Tuesday had made another report.

An autopsy is expected to be done today at the Forensic Science Centre in St James. The number of women to have been killed for the year now stands at 14.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Blood washed over the San Juan Croisee earlier today, as a woman who up to press time had not been identified was fatally stabbed by a male assailant. Police officers are, at this point, still not sure whether the stabbing was a result of a domestic dispute, or an attempted robbery.

Two men intervened in the stabbing and detained the attacker until police officers could arrive, and the woman was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. However it was too late for the woman who died as a result of her wounds at hospital.

The fatal stabbing occurred at about 2.30 pm.

Witnesses told Newsday, the assailant was seen at the Croisee, on the side of the Priority Bus Route, and when he saw the woman who was standing across the road, he crossed the road and began dealing her several stabs about the body, before running away.

He was eventually detained by witnesses and arrested by North Eastern Division Police officers.