Stabbed for failing to stop smoking

TWO PASSENGERS attacked a 20-year-old man with bottles and stabbed him with an ice pick because he had refused to stop smoking in a taxi. Around 10.30 pm on Sunday, Damien Braithwaite, of Easy Street, Fyzabad, was in a taxi on his way home when two male passengers, whom he knew,  told him to stop smoking because it was bothering them. Braithwaite  refused and an argument ensued.

When they alighted at Republic Bank, Fyzabad, the two men attacked Braithwaite, striking him with several bottles. One of the men then pulled out an ice pick and stuck his left forearm. With the ice pick lodged in his arm, Braithwaite ran to his nearby home and called the police. The police immediately res-ponded and five minutes later had the two suspects in custody. The suspects, both 18, a joiner and a carpenter, of Gowells Road, Fyzabad, were expected to be charged with malicious wounding and if so, would appear before a Siparia magistrate today. Braithwaite was treated and discharged at the Accident and Emergency Department of the San Fernando General Hospital.