Monrovia – Residents of Dolphin Beach, nestled on the back road of Congo Town, were awakened by the sound of a vehicle which had brought ten unknown men whose identity remain suspect, to bury a dead body.
Report by Mae Azango [email protected]
“I was lying down last night about 11:55 PM when some community dwellers started shouting that there was a body in a taxi on the beach,” said Calvin Kangar.
“And when we got there, we saw over eight to ten men in number who had shovels to bury this body and when we asked them, they said the man was a TB patient but when I looked at the body, I saw stabbing marks in his chest and one in his neck, so I told them it could not be true because they won’t be trying to bury the man under darkness.”
He said the men produced a receipt from the JFK but it did not appear authentic due to the absence of a date and the official stamp of JFK Hospital.
At that point, the community dwellers decided to burst the tires and break the windshield of the vehicle so the suspects could not escape the scene and then called the Police. Seven men were arrested while the others ran away.
“I recognized a mechanic among the men because he came in our community twice to fix vehicles. People are always in the habit of bringing bodies and dumping them on the beach in our community, which is not a good thing to do because it makes us look bad.”
Some months ago, some unknown men allegedly carried a man on the beach with intent to kill him when a former combatant who lives on the beach attacked the men with a machete and an iron in defense of the victim, who later escaped for his life.
When the Police were contacted, the Liberian National Police spokesman Sam Collins said the Police had received a tip-off of a drug deal going on at the beach involving some traffickers who were riding a speed boat, but when the plain clothes officers of Criminal Investigation Division (CID) went to apprehend the drug dealers, they were attacked by the residents.
Confirming Calvin’s story of dumping unknown bodies on their community beach, Emmanuel Johnson, another community dweller, expressed his dissatisfaction.
“This is not the first second or third time, but all the time we see unknown bodies dumped in our community.”
“The last time some people wearing hospital clothes, who pretended to be going on the beach, dumped a body and ran away, and when we called the Police, they said they could not touch the body until after 72 hours, which is three days.
He said the only response from the Police is they are investigating the incident but do not do anything or get back to the community after concluding their investigations.
“Every time people drop dead bodies here and Police say they will investigate. We cannot hear anything from them, so this is making community dwellers afraid because we are not safe and our lives are at risk. We will not involve Police but we will take our own actions in defending our community because we cannot depend on the law enforcement officers,” said Johnson.
When this paper arrived on the scene of the incident, where onlookers and community dwellers were gathered, there were two taxi cabs, the one in front had a shovel and a grass whipper on the back seat and the two side windows were destroyed, while the second taxi bearing license plate TX-4332 was carrying the dead body wrapped in a yellow body bag with the back windshield smashed and a shovel lying near the body.
A fellow believed to be the owner of the vehicle in the front said he was shocked to see his vehicle being used to involve in such act.
“I live on the Old Road and always park my car around the Lucky Pharmacy area and when I went to get my car this morning, I was told that a man identified as Marine, had died and his friends took my car to go and bury him on the beach.”
“I always leave my car keys at the place we park the car in order to allow other cars that I might be blocking to leave without waiting for me to come.”
“I was so angry when I heard that my car was on this beach and now I am seeing my two front glasses broken,” said D. Darious Choloplay.
Choloplay said he knows the deceased from around the Lucky Pharmacy because he usually paid him to wash his vehicle.
“This has already landed me into trouble, but I will get out after explaining to the Police, they will see a reason to give my car because I am not part of what happened,” he concluded.
Police spokesman Sam Collins said they receive a call at 11PM that the driver of a vehicle had passed out and was taken to the JFK Hospital and was pronounced dead but the hospital would not receive his lifeless body so his friends decided to bury him on the beach.
“It was at that point, the community got concerned about why would people want to mysteriously bury a man around 11 to 12 midnight. “
“So, when the community called the Police, seven persons were arrested and are in Police custody and the Police are investigating but we have been informed that there was no foul play.”