The suspect in the death of Barrackpore lorry man Antonio Manickchand from a brutal beating has gone missing. Police confirmed that the 27-year-old suspect’s father reported him missing on Monday, one day before Manickchand succumbed to his injuries at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the San Fernando General Hospital.
Manickchand, 25, of Rees Road, was at the Sky Lab Bar on Kanhai Road North around 11.50 pm Saturday when a fight broke out. He suffered severe head injuries and his parents, Cassie and Seechan, took him to the Princes Town District Health Facility where medics stabilised him before he was transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital.
Manickchand’s mother told Guardian Media that he underwent surgery on Monday to reconstruct parts of his face and looked well after the surgery. She said the family was hopeful he would recover but those hopes were dashed when a doctor called her on Tuesday morning with the devastating news.
“We said he was stable because he is going in the ward. Yesterday (Tuesday) morning, I got up and I got a kind of vibe like something was wrong. The phone rang at 7.44 am. I will always remember that time. The way the person talked to me, I knew my child was gone,” she said.
She said doctors were shocked at his death as he was stable after the surgery.
The police have now launched a homicide investigation and are awaiting an autopsy report.
Cassie Manickchand showed bruises on her arm which she said she sustained when she was struck several times as she tried to protect her son from his assailant.
She said her son went to support her husband who was playing in an All Fours competition at the bar and they were standing outside when Manickchand was struck in the back of his head with a wheel spanner.
“My son passed away, and he does not know who hit him up because he got the lash from the back. When he fell, I do not know what made me turn around, and I saw him on the ground, and I started to bawl and tell the fella, ‘What are you doing to my son?’ He was steadily hitting him in his head, and when I could not brakes it any more, I ran inside and called my husband.”
Cassie believes the attack on her son was linked to an altercation at a Mother’s Day event last May when her four sons came to her defence. However, she is confident she will get justice as many people are looking for the suspect.
“It is not nice, you know, that feeling of knowing my child is gone. I have to burn my child for nothing. If he did interfere with the boy if he did tell him something, it was something different, but the thing is, there is video footage showing what he did. The police have the footage. The police have the iron. It is just that they cannot locate him because he is hiding,” she said.