Angry pensioner pulls knife at SFGH

A frustrated pensioner who was spotted cursing and brandishing a knife in the car park of the San Fernando General Hospital on Tuesday night said he was provoked by security guards who did not allow him to stay with his sick sister.

Leo Baptiste, 65, said he was angry after being told he could not stay with his sister who was being attended to by doctors inside the Accident and Emergency Department.

Baptiste appeared Wednesday before senior magistrate Cherril-Anne Antoine in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court charged with possession of a knife to wound, using obsence language and resisting arrest. He pleaded guilty but told the magistrate he had an explanation for his behaviour.

He said he was a herbalist and on Tuesday night had just returned from working in the bush when he heard his sister had had a nervous breakdown.

“The ambulance came and I and another sister went with her into the ambulance van and she was taken to the hospital.”

Baptiste said when he arrived at the offloading section of A&E he was told he could not enter with his sisters via that particular entrance, but must go through the front entrance.

“When I went to the front I went by the security guards. They run me and say, ‘Go from here.’ Another one pushed me.

“They were judging me by how I was dressed. I am not a vagrant or piper, but I had now come from work and they were judging me. ”

He said the security guards then escorted him out of the hospital and into the car park, and claimed one of guards took out a baton and threatened to beat him.

“I was provoked and yes, I took out the knife in my pocket and began waving it around.

“My sister was inside, I just wanted to go in. My sister needed me, but they would not listen.”

Baptiste confessed that he also began to use obsene language while holding the knife.

Prosecutor PC Cleyon Seedan said the security guard told Baptiste only one family member was allowed with the patient into certain sections of A&E, and at the time a relative was already with Baptiste’s sister, so he could not go inside.

The magistrate entered a plea of not guilty and put Baptiste on $6,000 bail to cover all charges. The matter was transferred to the San Fernando Fifth Magistrate Court to be heard on September 26.