Latest update August 31st, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 19, 2009 News
A man viciously stabbed the mother of his child and believing that she was dead, apparently turned the weapon on himself with fatal consequence.
Dead is 40-year-old Julius Chung, of South Road, Lacytown, while the mother of his one-year-old son, 26-year-old Dianne Browne, of 40 Joseph Pollydore Street, Lodge, was rushed to the Georgetown Hospital in a critical condition.
Browne received emergency treatment and her condition has since stabilized.
The woman, who was at her residence at the time of the attack, reportedly sustained stab wounds to both of her hands, abdomen and back, before rushing out of her downstairs apartment to seek help from neighbours.
The incident occurred shortly after 11:00hrs yesterday, and coming so close on the heels of the murders in Berbice, raised the ire of women gathered at the scene.
Even as bystanders discussed the turn of events, investigating ranks remained locked inside the house gathering forensic evidence.
Dianne Browne’s neighbour, Lawrence Ferdinand, who lives on the upper flat of the two-storey building, said that he was watching the cricket match between the West Indies and England when he heard sounds coming from the downstairs apartment. He said that it sounded as though two people were quarreling.
The man said he ignored the sounds because he thought that the couple downstairs was just having a domestic spat.
He said that shortly afterwards he heard sounds as though someone was climbing the stairs that led to his front door and a voice shouting, “Help Mr Ferdinand, help!”
He said he opened up and was greeted by the horrific sight of a bloodied Browne at his front door.
“Blood was all over the place,” the man recounted.
Indeed, the top of the stairs where Browne collapsed was awash in blood. A trail of blood from the bottom to the top of the stairs bore evidence of the woman’s struggle to escape further injury.
Ferdinand said that Browne was clutching her left side as blood oozed from a wound near her tummy.
He explained that before the woman passed out she told him that her son’s father had stabbed her. She then pleaded with him to take her to the hospital.
Ferdinand said that he immediately called the police who promptly responded. At the time he had no idea that Chung was lying dead in a pool of blood in the front bedroom of the downstairs apartment.
When the police arrived they knocked on the door but got no response.
According to Ferdinand, one of Browne’s sisters who had a key to the apartment subsequently opened the door.
It was then that they made the grisly discovery of Chung’s body on the bed.
Ferdinand said that Browne resided at the bottom flat with her mother and two children since September last year. He said that her mother had recently left for an out of town location. According to Ferdinand, it was soon after the injured woman’s mother departed that Chung struck.
“He was probably waiting for the coast to clear before he made his move,” Ferdinand opined.
Speaking to this newspaper at the Georgetown Public Hospital where she had received emergency treatment, Browne said that she had severed her relationship with Chung one week ago, but he kept begging her to reconsider her decision.
Her sister confirmed that the dead man would normally send threatening messages to Browne following the severing of their relationship.
According to Browne, her son’s father came to her apartment early yesterday but she refused to open to let him in.
She urged him to leave since there was “nothing to talk about.”
He left and returned after the other occupants had left the apartment and kept begging Browne to open.
Browne said that she went into a bedroom when she heard the sound of the front door opening.
Apparently Chung had let himself into the apartment by pushing his hand through a space in the window and opening the door.
She became afraid and locked herself in a room but Chung managed to kick it open.
“He start coming to me like if he want to kiss me or have sex with me. I did not see the knife but when he hugged me I felt the stab in my back and only then I realized that he had a knife,” Browne recalled.
She stated that Chung continued to stab her about her body and she managed to run outside and sought help from the neighbour.
“I didn’t know what happened after that,” the injured women said.
Her condition is listed as stable. Meanwhile, over in South Road, relatives of the dead man are still puzzled over what really led to such a brutal end.
The dead man’s mother Roslyn Chung told this newspaper that she last saw her son about two hours before she received the tragic news.
“He said he was going out to get a phone card. I gave him a thousand dollars and told him to bring back my change. He did not tell me he was going by her,” Mrs. Chung said.
She said that someone brought the news to one of her other sons.
“My son called me down quietly and I was kind of feeling uncomfortable. He put me to sit down and asked me if I’m all right. Then he told me what he heard,” the woman told Kaieteur News.
She informed that her son and the mother of his one-year-old son had an on and off relationship.
“They would break up and make up. They probably had their differences,” she explained.
She told this newspaper that Chung who was a security guard at a popular sports bar in the city had recently taken possession of his child and had taken him to a location on the East Coast of Demerara to be taken care of.
“The baby is staying somewhere on the East Coast. He did not tell us where and I don’t believe that she (Browne) knows where he is. Nobody knows where the child is,” Mrs. Chung stated.
When asked if this could have caused yesterday’s row that led to the incident, one of the injured woman’s sisters dismissed it, claiming that Browne had willingly given over custody of the child to Brown.
The sister is convinced that Chung tried to kill Browne because she refused to make up with him.
Police did not immediately say if they recovered the weapon used in the incident.
However, in a press release they stated that they are “investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Julius Chung, whose body was found with a stab wound to the chest at about 11:30 hours yesterday in a yard at Joseph Pollydore Street, Georgetown; and the wounding of Diane Browne, 26 years, of the same address, who was stabbed about her body”.
The release stated that the circumstances of Chung’s death and Browne’s injuries are not yet clear.
Mineral and oil rich country borrowing to feed, clothe and house its citizens.
Aug 31, 2024
Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League 2024… Kaieteur Sports – Defending champs Guyana Amazon Warriors opened their account with 3-wicket win over the Antigua & Barbuda Falcons during...Kaieteur News – We can find no better example of self-interest masquerading as magnanimity than the recent motion passed... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – There is an alarming surge in gun-related violence, particularly among younger... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]