April 22, 2010
Businessman found dead at home
Cops suspect murder
Undertakers removing the body of Junior Richards from his Eccles,East Bank Demerara home yesterday.
The dead body of a city businessman was yesterday morning discovered with multiple wounds to the head at his Eccles, East Bank Demerara home.
The body of Junior Richards, also known as ‘Non-Stop,’ 49, of Lot 18, Anaida Avenue, Eccles East Bank Demerara, was found in his home around 10:45 hrs.
Police said that there were marks of violence to Richards’ head and they were treating the case as a suspected murder. According to reports, the body was discovered in his bedroom in the upper flat of his two-flat home by his maid. Richards operated several businesses in the city, including Le Rich Guest House on Princes Street as well as a garment entity and a taxi service.
Junior Richards
Speaking to reporters at Richards’ home yesterday, his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Cox, said he was bludgeoned to death, noting the multiple wounds to the region of the head.
She said the wounds appeared to have been inflicted with a blunt object. While she could not suggest a motive for the killing, Cox said investigators found several large pieces of brick close to the man’s body.
One of Richards’ employees said that early yesterday, a maid contacted the business place after she arrived at his home and saw “the house lock up” and the “lights around the house on.” The employee said she and another employee subsequently went up to the house and they found the back door open.
According to the woman, she sensed something was amiss and entered the home to be greeted by a ransacked living room. Clothing, furniture and other articles were strewn around the home and blood stains were splattered on the floor, the woman related.
She said she entered the bedroom and discovered Richards lying face down on his bed with bloodstains in the vicinity of his head. According to her, she immediately travelled to the Providence Police Station and related her discovery.
Police detectives cordoned off the scene as they carried out their investigations yesterday, while several relatives and friends of Richards gathered in front of the house. Relatives told Stabroek News that the man’s wife was in Barbados, where she traded clothing for the garment business.
She was expected in the country some time last night. They described Richards as a quiet and hard-working individual who was not known to have any enemies or grievances with anyone. The man’s neighbours related that on Tuesday night, some time after 10, a car was parked on the road in front of the house with its hazard lights illuminated for a considerable amount of time.
Police investigators told this newspaper yesterday that information revealed that two persons had visited the man that evening and might be the last persons to have been in contact with him. Investigators spent close to three hours scouring the scene yesterday and a tracker dog trailed the street leading to a location at the southern eastern periphery of the community.
As the man’s body was removed by undertakers from the home, relatives broke down in tears. “Revenge, we will find who kill ‘Non-Stop’,” one relative shouted, as he consoled another family member. Other relatives speculated about the motive behind the man’s death, some stating that he might have known his killers.
Richards’ body is currently at the Lyken Funeral Home in the city, awaiting a post-mortem examination. (Alva Solomon/Stabroek News)
April 9, 2010
Mon Repos businessman executed
Dead: Rajendra Motilall Sonilall
A gunman pumped four bullets into a Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara man last evening, blowing his brains out as he sat alone at his business place. “Somebody pay dem people to kill meh son,” the mother of Rajendra Motilall Sonilall, 41, of 73 Mon Repos Pasture, said last evening, as she wailed for him.
Sonilall, who was also known as ‘Moti’ and ‘Salt fish Man,’ was sitting at his salt fish business place, not far from his home, when the lone gun-man walked up to him and shot him four times. He was reported shot twice to the head, once to the throat and another bullet pierced his stomach.
His assailant was said to have been cloaked in a coat and also had his face covered. Reports are that the man then walked towards the Railway Embankment, where a car was waiting for him. “People say dem see deh car park there but dem ent tek it for nothing is after Moti dead den dem know is wah happen,” a male relative said.
Police, in a statement last evening, said they were investigating Sonilall’s murder. Investigations revealed that about 7:30 pm he was sitting alone under a shed in the vicinity of his business place at Mon Repos Pasture, when an armed man approached and discharged shots at him which struck him to his head and abdomen, police said.
Sonilall was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Two spent shells were recovered at the scene by the police. At the hospital, scores gathered and many wept openly after hearing the news of the man’s death. The man’s popularity was also very evident at his home, as the entire street was lined with persons and more than an hour after the shooting many were still standing in the vicinity of the spot where he shot.
According to Sonilall’s relatives, he had spent most of the day in Georgetown and had returned home shortly before he received a phone call and he left for his business. All of his workers had already left for home, leaving Sonilall sitting by himself when he was approached. “Deh man bin pass he and den he like tun back and point deh gun to he head and blow he brains out, he shoot he at close range,” one of the man’s relatives told Stabroek News last night.
Amidst much wailing by the numerous persons that had converged at the man’s mother home, relatives related that whoever attacked Sonilall went with the sole intent to murder him. Stabroek News was told that the man had in his possession over $200,000, jewellery and a cellular phone, all of which were intact when he was found slumped next to the bench where he was seated.
Residents and relatives said that they heard four gunshots and when they ran to the scene they found the man slumped and bleeding. “He couldn’t talk but he still bin a breathe because he belly bin moving but he brain din come out on the ground,” this newspaper was told. Sonilall, a father of five, had a stall at the Stabroek Market, where he vended his salt fish, and he also exported the product overseas. “Today he export some slat fish, only today,” a relative said.
Some of his relatives said they believe that the man was killed by someone who owed him and was reluctant to repay their debt. “Somebody who owe Moti pay fuh kill am,” a sister of the man said. Another relative stated that someone owed the man in the vicinity of $8M. Relatives also said Sonilall was before the courts for being in possession of an unlicensed gun.
They related that the man had purchased the weapon from someone who in turn sent the police to him and the gun was uncovered. “Dem sell am deh gun and bin a go to court, only next week he was to go to court but now dem come and kill am,” a sister said as she screamed for her brother.
The woman, who would only give her name as ‘Data,’ said she had seen when her brother left his home and went to the spot where he was killed. “I see me buddy sitting deh and I look at he and I say to me self, ‘me buddy get problem but he nah tell nobody,’ because of how he look,” the sister said.
The man’s sisters said he was like their “bread winner” as he provided the fish they sold at their stall and ‘Data’ said shortly before he was killed he had promised to give her fish today for her stall. “A depend on me buddy fuh a living, now who guh help me? Who guh run deh business me nah get sense to run deh business,” another sister said. (Stabroek News)
April 1, 2010
Autopsy fails to clear up ‘exorcism’
Police question pastor
The Christ Ambassadors Church in South Section, Canal Number Two where the exorcism was performed.
An autopsy yesterday failed to determine the cause of Sangeeta Persaud’s death and as police questioned the pastor who did an “exorcism” hours before the girl died on Sunday, members of his congregation defended him and said the accusations stem from a religious conflict in the community.
Police opened an investigation yesterday into the 14-year-old girl’s death and took statements from her grandmother, Chaitranie Ramotar, the pastor and members of the Christ Ambassadors Church. An autopsy done yesterday by Dr. Nehaul Singh was “inconclusive”, the police said in a brief statement.
Sangeeta Persaud
Persaud died at the West Demerara Regional Hospital on Sunday, hours after being admitted. Earlier that day, saying she was demon- possessed, a pastor and several church members “treated” the teen for hours by pounding her stomach until she bled, her grandmother said.
Ramotar had told Stabroek News that while they were having breakfast at about 7:30am on Sunday; her granddaughter grabbed her and began shaking. This continued and at 8am, the pastor of the Church turned up and said the girl was “possessed by a demon” and attempted to “cast it out”.
His efforts did not have any effect on the girl and at 11 am, the girl was taken to the church. He was joined by his wife, another member of the church and the man’s wife, Persaud’s mother and grandmother. The men and their wives then began to pound her granddaughter’s stomach to get the demon out, Ramotar had said.
She had told this newspaper that they also massaged the girl’s privates and squeezed her neck and gave her lime and salt and “anointed oil” to drink. The girl later began to bleed through her privates and at 6 pm, she was cleaned and taken to the hospital, Ramotar had related. Persaud died at 10 pm. Residents, speaking with this newspaper on Tuesday, had called on police to investigate.
There is obvious tension in the Canal Number One, West Bank Demerara community between church members and some residents. Relatives and some residents watched as a Stabroek News reporter spoke with members of the small church, which is located in a resident’s yard. They signalled that they also wanted to speak with the reporter.
Several women preparing the church for services defended the pastor and blamed a religious conflict for the accusations being made against him. “Nothing what people saying is true. God is in control”, said one woman. “She was feeling sick and Pastor (name) went and pray but she didn’t get deliver there”, another added.
One said that when Persaud had been brought to the church, her body was “soft” and she was behaving badly. While in the church, she slept, the woman said. The women declined to give their names. They said after the girl was not “delivered” at the church, she was taken to the hospital. They could not say why she was only taken to the hospital long after the “treatment” had failed.
“Everybody feel discouraged. We feel sad for the girl that died. It hurt me because is like my own daughter die”, one woman said. She questioned how the pastor could beat somebody in the church, asserting that this is a lie. The woman said it is a Christian church, Pentecostal, and the pastor was trained through the Assemblies of God denomination.
Responding to accusations that the pastor held sessions at least twice to “take out demons”, the woman said they have services on Sunday, Wednesday evening and Friday evening. She said the congregation has 40 members. During services, the woman said, there is normally an “altar call” during which everyone who feels a need for prayer can go to the altar. “When he lay his hand on them, they does get afflict with demon.
When the Man of God lay his hand on them, the demons manifest themselves”, said the woman. “When you got a sick or got a feeling when you go before God, you does cry out”, she added. The woman denied that lime and salt and “anointed oil” are used. “He don’t really use no kind of thing to cast out jumbie. He use the power of God through prayer”, she said, adding they are hurt about the situation.
According to the woman, because of the pastor’s ethnicity, he is not liked by some members of the community. They said that the residents want the church to close down. But they are standing by their pastor, the women said. He helps his congregation, they asserted.
“He never ask we for money or gas for he car”, one woman said, with the others agreeing. “I love he from the dust he walk on”, added a middle-aged woman. “You don’t have to spend a cent to come in this building to get lil healing”, another said.
An elderly woman told this newspaper that one of her daughters was sick for a long time and the pastor prayed for her and she was healed. “Christian nah beat nobody. They ah pray for people”, one woman asserted.
They pointed out that Persaud’s mother and grandmother were present during the “exorcism”. They said that they knew Persaud as she grew up in the community. “She was a very good child”, one said. Meantime, at Ramotar’s home, residents gathered. One relative, noting that the post-mortem examination was inconclusive, said that samples were taken for further testing.
The residents said they want justice and called for the Ministry of Human Services to investigate. “Me nah want nobody pickney fall in that situation”, said a relative. Persaud called ‘Sheena’ had celebrated her birthday on March 15. She will be buried today. (Stabroek News)
