It was in the month of September 2005, when well-known boxing coach, Donald Allison was gunned down outside of the Ricola Gym at Agricola. One year later, a cycling coach and his wife suffered similar fates outside of their Campbellville home and up to now the police have been unable to find the killers and seem clueless as relatives of the dead search for answers.
There has been no clearly-established motive as to why Allison was killed but there have been reports that cycling coach, Maximillian Pereira and his reputed wife, Marlis Archer might have perished at the hands of a contract killer. Stabroek News was privy to documents indicating that there was a rift between Pereira and relatives who reside overseas. Police in Guyana were alerted to the issue and were provided with documents to support this, however, no action was taken even though relatives of the dead couple had urged ranks to make contact with Scotland Yard to assist them in their investigations.
Contacted on Thursday a detective at the Brickdam Criminal Investigation Department said that both cases are still open and investigations were ongoing. The detective said that the police have not been able to track down the killers as in both cases, although persons might have witnessed the shooting, they did not identify anyone. The detective said the police would welcome information from members of the public.
On the evening of September 8 Allison was executed in a drive-by shooting carried out by men armed with machine guns. Allison was 43 at the time and had resided at Titus Street, Agricola. He came under a barrage of withering gunfire outside the Ricola Boxing Gym on the Agricola Public Road. Reports were that Allison, who was the head coach at the East Bank Demerara gym, was sitting in front of the two-story building with a female student when the men pulled up in a dark coloured vehicle. One eyewitness said that she noticed when the vehicle approached and the next thing she saw was the machine guns sticking out of the window and then there was a burst of rapid gunfire. The gunmen then sped further north along the public road to make their getaway. Allison, who sustained wounds to his head and upper body, was clearly the target of the attack.
The eyewitness had made it clear that she did not see anything, including the vehicle type, as she took off as soon as she saw the guns. Allison died on the spot and his body was later taken to the hospital for an official pronouncement.
Allison, a former local amateur champion and professional boxer, was credited with resuscitating the Ricola Gym almost single-handedly since he was deported to Guyana from the US in January 2002. There were reports that he might have been killed because he was trying to reform the lives of many young men in the Agricola community through boxing and those drug lords who had used the boys as mules were upset. Police questioned a few persons but never got close to the killers.
Allison had been the New York State Junior Welterweight Champion and fought professionally in the US from 1988 to 1994. Under his stewardship, the gym had offered its resources and the expertise of a small group of dedicated trainers to professional and amateur boxers.
Meanwhile, while the police have struggled to come up with clues as to who kill Allison they are similarly in no position to say who was the gunman who walked up to Pereira, an architect, and his wife, and shot them several times.
It was around 11 pm on October 1 when the couple was waylaid at their gate by the gunman. They had just returned home and had barely disembarked a minivan that was parked on the bridge when the gunman riddled them with bullets.
Pereira, in addition to being a coach was the chairman of Continental Cycling Club and his reputed wife, Archer, 43, was the Treasurer. They had resided at Lot 105 Duncan Street, Bel Air, Georgetown. Police had recovered nine spent shells from the scene.
Contacted last week, relatives said that family members were still in shock over the murders. One woman told this newspaper they have been hearing a number of theories concerning the deaths of the couple. “We want the police to bring to an end their investigation but that doesn’t look like it is going to end soon it looks like a long time away,” the relative who asked to remain anonymous said. Reiterating what they had earlier told this newspaper, the relative said the couple as far as they knew did not have any problem with anyone.
