May 29, 2010
Guard dies after brutal attack by intruder at Berbice school
George Campbell
A security guard attached to RK Security Services died on his way to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), just hours after he was severely battered while on duty at the Berbice High School.
George Campbell, 60, of Canefield, East Canje was rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital with severe wounds to his head, face and right eye.
It was not until 4 a.m. yesterday that a nurse at the New Amsterdam hospital recognised him and informed his relatives that he had been taken there after the attack. Relatives felt that if other persons had checked the contacts in his cell phone, they [relatives] would have been informed about the attack much earlier.
His sister, Hulda Chung told Stabroek News that when she got to the hospital arrangements were being made to take Campbell to the GPH in an ambulance. She said the right side of his face was severely wounded and his right eye appeared as though it was “burst.” He was also bleeding profusely from his mouth and nose.
Reports are that Campbell had confronted a man who was in the school’s compound. This newspaper learnt that he was “making checks” around the compound when he saw the man and inquired what he was doing there.
The “big, burly man,” who was reportedly wearing a cap that was pulled down in front of his face, then picked up a chair and brutally attacked the guard. There are also reports that Campbell was being robbed because he was shouting, “Ow, ah don’t have money!”
According to relatives, he was still conscious after he was taken to the hospital and was telling persons what had transpired. They learnt that Campbell was rescued by a security guard from the home of former mayor of New Amsterdam, Errol Alphonso. They said after hearing the screams for help, the security guard ran to his assistance. Campbell’s attacker jumped the fence and escaped.
Alphonso’s vehicle rushed the injured guard to the hospital, located just a stone’s throw away and relatives were extremely grateful to him and the guard. Campbell’s niece, Sharon Campbell, told this newspaper that she accompanied her uncle to the GPH in the ambulance. Along the way, the nurse administered oxygen and saline.
They were in the vicinity of Enmore, East Coast Demerara after 6 am, she said, when the “last set of blood gushed out of his mouth” and he apparently took his last breath. She said when they got to the GPH, his death was confirmed and staff there-after learning from the chart what time he was taken to the New Amsterdam hospital-commented that because of his condition he should have been taken there much sooner.
Campbell’s brother, Cyril, said although he was supposed to work the “12 to eight shift” he left home around 10 pm “because he had to [relieve] a female guard.” Campbell worked most of his life as an agricultural mechanic with Burma Rice Research Station and after that he worked with Cyril who is a building contractor. Four years ago, he started working as a security guard.
Also a former athlete who represented the Rose Hall Sugar Estate in “cross country racing,” Campbell leaves to mourn his three children and grandchildren who reside overseas. The man separated from his wife several years ago and lived alone. (Shabna Ullah/Stabroek News)
May 19, 2010
Several held over Corentyne robbery/murder
The vehicle with bullet holes
Several persons, including two women have been arrested following the bullet-riddled robbery at Wellington Park, Corentyne around 1:40 am on Monday which left a guard dead and his employer nursing gunshot injuries.
The women who are in custody were said to be entertaining a group of policemen from the Tactical Services Unit (TSU) based at the Whim Police Station, at their home.
Residents have criticized the police for the slow response and charged that at the time of the robbery the vehicle belonging to the TSU members was seen parked in a street between Wellington Park and Tarlogie.
However, Commander of ‘B’ Division, Steve Merai said he received the same report and conducted investigations and dismissed it as “nonsense.” Another senior rank had said they were “looking into” the reports against the ranks.
Merai pointed out that the TSU members who responded to the robbery left the Whim Police Station, six miles away, immediately after receiving the report. The ranks had just gotten to the station for the new shift.
According to the commander, another vehicle had gone to Black Bush Polder earlier in response to another report. He said the officers could not get to the scene before the bandits fled because the call about the robbery was not made to the station immediately.
According to him some persons complained that they were calling the Whim station but the lines were engaged while others placed calls to the New Amsterdam station. He confirmed that the 911 number is working, saying that after revisiting the scene he tried the number and “got through.”
The top cop pointed out that the woman, Vasantie ‘Sandra’ Ganesh, 43, whose house was being robbed, called her husband, Surendra Ganesh, 50, – who left home at 1 am for the airport – and her brother, Rajendra Persaud while the men were breaking into the house but may have panicked and did not call the police.
He said the bandits apparently used shot guns and 9 mm automatic weapons. Rajendra, the Chief Executive Officer of Nand Persaud & Co. Ltd. was responding to his sister’s call in a white Toyota Mark 11 motorcar, PKK 3482 when the bandits opened fire. He “ducked” to escape the hail of gunfire and “mashed the accelerator hard but he could not see where he was going…,” a relative said.
His car ended up crashing into a utility pole, plunging into a ditch, bouncing out again and became hooked on a plough in front of a relative’s house obliquely opposite the scene. He remained in the vehicle and shortly after, the Pajero, driven by a supervisor and carrying the security guard of the company, Arjune Gobin, 47, of Bloomfield, pulled up alongside it thinking it had parked there.
The bandits immediately fired shots at the vehicle, hitting Arjune in the head. He was rushed to the Port Mourant Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Based on investigations, a relative who witnessed the break-in only placed the call to the police after Rajendra’s car crashed. By then the bandits had gained entry to the house.
Merai said it took the ranks about 25 minutes to get to the scene. About eight minutes before that the bandits were seen escaping through an abandoned house next door and into the bushy area. The bandits used sledgehammers to pound a hole into the southern concrete wall through which they entered the house.
They also fired wildly at the house, shattering glass windows but they were unable to get past them because of the heavy grills. Relatives could not say how many persons had broken into the house but according to police reports, two bandits were breaking the wall while two others remained downstairs.
After entering the house the bandits switched on all the lights. They then used an inner stairway to get to the bottom flat and shot at the padlocks on the door to let their accomplices in. They then proceeded to ransack the house while continuing to riddle it with bullets.
By then Vasantie and her two children; Avinash, 20 and Vinaya, 14, had secured themselves in a room in the house. The bandits only managed to escape with $5,500 that was in a wallet in Avinash’s room. They attempted to steal a laptop computer from the bottom flat but left it on a table in the yard instead. (Stabroek News)
May 10, 2010
Burnt body of man found in car trunk at Palmyra
Roy Mitchell Persaud
The body of a man, burned beyond recognition, was yesterday morning discovered in a car trunk at Palmyra, Canje. It is believed that the remains are those of part-time hire car driver Roy Mitchell Persaud, called ‘Otis’ of Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam, who has been missing since Friday.
The car was also burnt. The vehicle was found at a canefield in Palymra. A police source told Stabroek News that a DNA test would have to be done to confirm that the body is Persaud’s but grieving relatives, certain that it is him, yesterday wondered why he met his death in that manner, saying that he was not a bad person and did not deserve such a death.
“It horrible, I don’t know who got the mind to do that,” said Sandra Tahal, the aunt of the 32-year-old father of two. She told Stabroek News that Persaud was last seen on Friday, when he went to work in New Amsterdam.
She said friends of his last saw him at about 10pm that night, when he left the New Amsterdam car park with passengers. He lived alone and the children stayed with their grandmother. After it was observed that he had not returned home that night, relatives launched a search and the burnt car with the body inside was discovered yesterday.
A police source said that law enforcement officials yesterday were told by an anonymous caller that the car was in the canefield and they went to investigate. The charred body in the car’s trunk was discovered then. The police had not received a report of Persaud being missing but as word got around, relatives showed up. Tahal said the police contacted them at about mid-day and relatives went to the scene.
There Persaud’s mother Shira said she recognized her son’s car by the rims. She also provided the chassis number which the police would have to confirm with the Licence Office. Tahal said that given how badly it was burnt, the man’s identity was not easily ascertained. However, they are certain that the car was his and scraps of the “blue hard pants” he was wearing on Friday were found, she said.
The police also told them that Persaud was the only person reported missing recently, Tahal said. The remains were taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital mortuary and are expected to be handed over to relatives today.
Tahal said relatives did not know who would want to kill Persaud or why. She said he spoke of no enemies and she knew of no trouble he had with anyone. “We nah really know what play out there,” she said. She wondered whether he was killed before being burned or was burned to death. She lamented how people could do such a thing to anyone, adding that her nephew was not a “bad” person.
The woman told this newspaper that Persaud and his wife had worked in Trinidad but he had recently returned home to look after the children’s passports to take them to the Caribbean country. While here, to get money, he worked part-time as a hire-car driver. Tahal said he had spent just under six months in Trinidad working. She did not know what work he did.
Persaud was the father of two; a 13-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl. He is also survived by a sister and mother, Shira Tahal. Police investigations are continuing. (Stabroek News)
