Men in two vehicles were involved in the murder of clothes vendor Raphael Piggott on Saturday in Cummings Lodge, another execution-style case.
The pregnant reputed wife of Piggott, who was in the vehicle at the time, yesterday said she didn’t see the murderer, just a small hand gun in his hands that fired two bullets into the back of the vendor killing him almost instantaneously.
The woman yesterday told Stabroek News that they had returned from Suriname, where they had gone to do some Christmas shopping and her husband was dropping off his friend, who had accompanied them, at his Sixth Street, Cummings Lodge home when tragedy struck. She was sitting in the front seat while the friend was in the back seat.
A release from the police yesterday said that they are investigating the incident which occurred at around 5:15 pm on Saturday.
Speaking from their Guy-hoc Park home, the woman said that they had reached the lot where the friend was to be dropped off but he had not exited as yet as her husband wanted to turn the car around. She said she knew something was wrong when Piggott reversed the car in a rash manner and when he turned the car around she saw him look through the window.
“So I look through the window and is then I see this man come out a car with a gun in he hand,” the woman said. She said before she could react the man fired two shots hitting her husband in the back. Piggott’s foot was on the accelerator and after he was shot he accelerated and the car pulled off at a very fast speed.
Twenty-six-year-old Piggott was in no position to control the car which eventually came to halt in the yard of the Trooper Taxi Service in Sixth Street after ramming the fence.
“Both of us had on seat belt so I was trying to reach over to get the wheel but with the seat belt it was hard. After the car stop I jump out and run around and try to open he door but it was hard. Some men then come and help open the door and tek he out and they say a bus coming to carry he to the hospital,” the young woman said. She said that she remained with her husband all the time and she tried talking to him even as blood gushed from his wounds. The woman said her husband made no sound after being shot. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital.
King said after her husband was shot and the car crashed she never saw his friend again until she went to the police station to give a statement.
That’s because, according to the friend, after the car stopped “I just open the door and I gone, I ent come out back until the police come because me ent know if them men still went around.” Speaking to Stabroek News, the man, who did not want to be named, said like Piggott’s wife he only knew something was wrong by the fast rate his friend reversed the car. He said when he looked through his window he saw the gunman running alongside the car with the gun in his hand and even before he realised what was happening the shots were fired. The man, who is a miner said, as Piggott slumped over the steering wheel with his foot still on the accelerator and the car raced out of control, he stretched forward and attempted to control the wheel to no avail.
It is not clear whether the car was trailing Piggott but from all indications it was not lying in wait for the man, according to residents in the area. And residents also reported that two cars were utilized in the murderous attack since when the man exited one car another car with two occupants was also parked in the area. They both sped off after the shooting. Residents said the cars were white and blue in colour.
And while the woman said her husband, who walks and sells clothes and spare parts and also works his car sometimes as a taxi, does not have a problem with anyone, his mother, Ena Piggott, said that he had a serious feud with a former brother-in-law. How-ever, the woman said it was about four years ago. While not pointing fingers the woman said it is something worth investigating since as far as she knows her son, who she described as a “loving and peaceful child”, did not have a problem with anyone else. She recalled that her son had called her and told her he had just arrived from Suriname and that she should visit his home and wait for him. “I tell he I can’t come but I wanted to surprise he so I was here waiting for him when I get the news,” the woman said.
Other than his wife and his mother Piggott has also left seven siblings to mourn his death. The man had fathered two children with another woman but both died at ages seven years and a year and a half respectively.
Execution-style
Piggott’s death has reinforced the point that execution-style killings are back. His death follows closely on the heels of 25-year-old Alicia Foster who was shot in the face last month, minutes after she drove up to her David Street, Kitty home. While she was waiting on her sister to open the gate to drive into the yard she was approached by a man who demanded that she exit the car. She was then shot in the face and pulled from the vehicle. Her assailant then jumped into her car and drove away while his accomplice also fled the scene. The day after the shooting the woman’s car PHH 2236 was found abandoned at Well Road, North Ruimveldt minus the keys.
And on March 21 this year gunmen executed a Charles-town man at Laing Avenue in a well-planned drive-by attack. George Barton called ‘Burlin’, 48, of 34 Howes Street, Charlestown was shot in front of his daughter. The man’s killers were reportedly trailing him since he left his Charlestown home. They crept up on him from the opposite end of Laing Avenue, which is a long stretch of road running east to west from Cemetery Road, East La Penitence to Hunter Street, Yarrow Dam, and shot and killed him on the spot.
Another execution-style killing occurred on May 14 of this year when Arjune Singh was shot at a roadblock. He had stopped at the roadblock block set up on Middleton Street by two police officers who were checking documents. Within minutes, a car pulled up alongside the checkpoint, a gunman disembarked and a fusillade erupted.
And on December 1 last year Pastor Ian David was also shot and killed execution-style. There were suggestions that Pastor David was executed over a private matter and that robbery was not the motive. The pastor of Prophecy One Deliverance Ministry in Hadfield Street, Lodge, was shot after a gunman stormed into the church. David was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he died while receiving treatment. The pastor was shot to the back of his head and the upper back while lying face down as ordered by the gunman.
And on June 7 last year Navin Serrao died after armed men drove up alongside his car and pumped several bullets into him on Thomas Lands.
