Kitty man killed on birthday during fight at Psychiatric Hospital

Dead: 29 year Stephon Francis

By Royan Abrams

A fight at the Psychiatric Hospital in New Amsterdam Berbice has left 29 year old Kitty Georgetown resident Stephon Francis dead. Francis was only taken to the facility as a patient one week ago and also celebrated his birth anniversary on Sunday, May 09, 2019.

Big Smith Crime Watch was told by relatives of the  dead man that they were informed that he and another patient of the institution were involved in a fight on Sunday and he was rushed to the hospital for treatment where he was pronounced dead on arrival from suspected injuries he sustained.

The suspect being held after the incident

His aunt, Samantha Young explained that sometime around 23:30hrs, on Sunday she received a call from the facility’s social worker informing her that there was an incident where some items were reportedly stolen from the deceased which his mother had earlier in the day dropped off for his birthday.

It is reported that in the process of securing his stolen items he was attacked by two male patients which resulted in his demise after he sustained injuries about his body.

“I subsequently call back the social worker a little after 1.am today and she said she didn’t had the full details of what transpired nevertheless she would gather the information when she return to work today and be able to give us a better report when we came today, she told me if I needed more info I would need to talk with the matron who was on duty and I called her and she told me there was a push and push back and he fell and he hit his head and he died.” The relative related.

Samantha Young

According to the aunt, she was informed that the suspect was placed in a room where he was confined until the police arrived. However the police were not allowed to remove the man from the property as there are serval standard operating procedures which ought to follow when removing a patient from the facility, especially in the circumstances.

“The police contacted me during the course of this morning and they said if I can come up and I told them I was on my way and when I meet an hour ago and enquired why an arrest was not made and they said they were prevented from doing so because they were told by the administration that they have to follow SOP procedure” The dead man’s aunt related to Big Smith Crime Watch.

Unconfirmed reports have suggested that several complaints have been launched in the past about the very patient who is now in police custody. He is said to be in the habit of bullying other patients and even making sexual advances to a number of them. It is however unclear how those alleged issues were addressed by the administration of the facility.

The visit by Stephon’s mother to the facility on Sunday in observance of his birthday was to deliver some of the items he really enjoyed and was fond of, she told Big Smith Crime Watch.

“Now we take care of you yesterday and the same day you kill me child, when my son came up here he came with different snacks and other things and when we ask where his stuff, he said them thieve his stuff” Marlene Prince the distraught mother lamented.

Marlene Prince

The relatives of the dead man are not entirely pleased with the response they received from the Director of Regional health Services in Berbice.

“We met with the director it was just after 15:30 and I am saying an incident occur 12 hours ago and you don’t have the facts or any report. It is saying that something is terribly wrong with the system. If you are the man on this ground in charge and 12 hours after you have to be asking across the floor who was the person that they said did this and who was the person, you should have had those report on your desk you know the family was on their way and they would need a proper report, why would you throw back and rock back 12 hours after?. This is slackness” Prince noted

Meanwhile the suspect was taken into custody this afternoon. A postmortem examination is expected to be conducted on the deceased following which a file is expected to be sent to the director of public prosecution for advice.