Santa Cruz Resident Fatally Stabbed During Altercation at Placencia Hotel and Casino

Everaldo Samayoa

In the peninsula, police are investigating the fatal stabbing of a Santa Cruz resident. The forty-four-year-old was at the Placencia Hotel and Casino along with two of his brothers when he was stabbed. An argument started inside the casino and escalated when the men went outside the premises.  Twenty-four-year-old Everaldo Samayoa was stabbed and died, while his sibling Maron survived the incident.  A third person in the confrontation, security guard Darwin Castillo, has been arrested by the police.  News Five’s Hipolito Novelo reports.

Hipolito Novelo, Reporting

Twenty-four-year-old Everaldo Samayoa is dead tonight and the man who allegedly caused his untimely demise, thirty-five-year-old Darwin Castillo is behind bars.  Samayoa was fatally stabbed at around one-thirty this morning while at the Placencia Hotel and Casino along the Placencia strip. According to investigators, Samayoa along with two of his brothers including Marlon who was stabbed in his back was involved in a brawl with Castillo, a security officer at the establishment.

ACP Joseph Myvett, Head, National Crimes Investigation Branch

“What we know is that those persons were inside the casino consuming alcohol and whilst leaving they were approached by the security who spoke to them in relations to certain rules. As a result, that seemingly caused those persons to get upset where they got into an altercation and security was pushed down. This however did not end that as apparently the altercation continued to the back of the building which resulted in the security receiving a chop wound or a cut wound to the left arm whilst Everaldo Samayoa obviously received a stab wound to the right ribcage and was transported to the Southern Regional Hospital where he later died while undergoing treatment.”

During the fight, a knife was produced. Castillo received a cut to his left arm which doctors classified as ‘wounding’. At this point, the matter is being treated as a death investigation.

Joseph Myvett

ACP Joseph Myvett

“One person is in custody whilst the police is conducting this investigation.”

Andrea Polanco

“What direction are you conducting this investigation from? Is it just a death investigation at this point?”

ACP Joseph Myvett

“Yes, it is a death investigation at this point in time.”

Andrea Polanco

“So do we know who inflicted the fatal stab wound?”

ACP Joseph Myvett

“That is what we are trying to ascertain at this point in time.”

Andrea Polanco

“Are you able to say whether these men, the Samayoa brothers that is, were under the influence of alcohol?”

ACP Joseph Myvett

“Well they were consuming alcohol. That is what I can say.”

Andrea Polanco

“So now the security guard, I understand that he has been released from the hospital, are you able to say if he has been detained?”

ACP Joseph Myvett

“Well the police is talking to him as well as several other persons.”

At the scene, police found a machete measuring one and a half foot believe to have been introduced by one of the brothers.

ACP Joseph Myvett

“The police did find a machete, however, there seem to have not been any blood stains on the machete but it was still retained as part of the investigation.”

Andrea Polanco

“So you believe that there should be or still was another weapon involved?”

ACP Joseph Myvett

“Yes we do believe so.”

Andrea Polanco

“So you know to whom that weapon belonged?”

ACP Joseph Myvett

“At this point in time no as this incident has just occurred after one this morning. Since then the police have been at the investigation.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Hipolito Novelo.