Jensen La Vende

Two men ar­gu­ing over re­li­gion on Thurs­day night end­ed with one dead and the oth­er be­ing sought by po­lice for his killing. There were 188 mur­ders up to late yes­ter­day.

Po­lice said Clint Julien, 36, of Ma­tu­ri­ta Ex­ten­sion, Ari­ma, and oth­ers were preach­ing along the East­ern Main Road, Arou­ca, near the old po­lice sta­tion when a group of Mus­lim men ap­proached them and the two groups be­gan ar­gu­ing.

Po­lice said the dis­agree­ment be­gan just af­ter 8 pm and af­ter an ex­change of words one of the Mus­lim men went to his car, pulled out a knife and stabbed Julien who ran along the road­way and col­lapsed. He was tak­en to the Ari­ma Health Fa­cil­i­ty and then trans­ferred to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex where he died ear­ly yes­ter­day.

Po­lice said the two were ar­gu­ing over Julien's faith as Julien was a prac­tis­ing Je­ho­vah's Wit­ness.

Af­ter the stab­bing the at­tack­er fled and is be­ing sought by po­lice. When the T&T Guardian vis­it­ed the ad­dress giv­en by po­lice for Julien, the home was locked and neigh­bours did not wish to speak to the me­dia.

Po­lice said the killing is not a case of re­li­gious per­se­cu­tion adding that the mur­der has "weak­ened the fab­ric of our cos­mopoli­tan so­ci­ety."

In an un­re­lat­ed in­ci­dent, which took place with­in the same di­vi­sion, a known drug ad­dict was chopped to death ear­ly yes­ter­day.

Po­lice said 18-year-old Nigel "Sket­tle" Grif­fith was found dead with wounds to his head at the side of a play­ing field at Recre­ation Road, Ari­ma Old Road, Ari­ma.

Res­i­dents told the T&T Guardian that Grif­fith, who used to do odd jobs in the area, was found around 8 am. They added that Grif­fith was want­ed by the po­lice and lived in a wood­en shack to the back of an in­com­plete house one street away from where his body was found al­most in a foetal po­si­tion. Po­lice said res­i­dents claimed Grif­fith was a "trou­bled youth in the area."

Po­lice said they re­ceived a tele­phone call alert­ing them to the dis­cov­ery short­ly af­ter 8 am. When they ar­rived they found Grif­fith's body.