Football tackle leads to beating

ANGRY over a bad tackle during a beach football game on Tuesday evening, a 21-year-old La Brea man attacked the offending player with a cutlass he had brought from home. However, Alvin Celestine did not anticipate that his victim would pick up a broken length of pipe lying nearby and defend himself from the cutlass attack. 

Police said Celestine fell to the ground in an unconscious state after being dealt three blows to the head with the pipe. According to police reports, around 5.30 pm, both men were playing a small-goal football game on the sandy shores of Vessigny beach when Celestine and the 20-year-old man, both of whom reside at Vessigny Village, tackled each other for the ball. Both men started arguing with each other afterwards. Celestine reportedly issued several threats as he stormed off the beach. Several minutes later he returned with a cutlass and before several eyewitnesses chopped the 20-year-old man across the chest. As Celestine prepared to lunge forward to deliver a second chop, the victim of the chopping grabbed a piece of pipe lying nearby in the sand and struck Celestine three times on the head.

The other players took both men to the nearby Point Fortin District Hospital. Celestine was transferred to San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) where up to late yesterday he remained warded in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit. Hospital sources disclosed that Celestine suffered a compound fracture to the skull. Police have since seized a cutlass but the length of pipe has not been found and is believed to have been thrown into the sea. Police returned to the beach yesterday to search for evidence. The 20-year-old man was treated for a chop wound on his chest and upon his discharge from hospital, was taken into custody. Sgt Jimmy Palloo of the Point Fortin Police Station is continuing inquiries.