A 65-year-old security guard of Rampoor Settlement, Corriverton was discovered dead at around 5.45 am yesterday at his place of work, the Skeldon Sugar Modernization Project (SSMP) and a suspect, said to be of unsound mind, has been taken into custody.
Reports are that another guard who turned up to relieve Mahendi Hussein, who was attached to RK’s Security Services, found him lying in a pool of blood in the guard hut and immediately raised an alarm. A piece of wood with a sharp end was stuck into Hussein’s left temple.
Hussein’s bicycle was missing. Police sources surmised that the incident had not occurred too long before the discovery was made as the blood was “still fresh.”
Police were in the area at the time investigating an armed robbery when they received reports about the murder. They related that Hussain’s supervisor had visited the site around 2.30 am and had left about half an hour later, leaving the guard alive and well.
Stabroek News learnt that the suspect was arrested after police recovered Hussein’s bicycle at the Skeldon Hospital. A dark blue pouch that the suspect was seen carrying earlier was hooked on the bicycle. Police received reports around 5 am that a man was creating havoc at the hospital, causing nurses and patients to run out in fright.
They visited the hospital and took the man into custody but released him shortly afterwards on account that he was mentally unstable. But when police received reports about the murder and learnt that a bicycle was missing, they promptly rearrested the man.
Police said in a press release that Hussein’s body was found in the guard hut at the SSMP with marks of violence to his head. The release said a piece of wood suspected to be the murder weapon was recovered and that a man was in custody assisting with investigations.
Hussein’s wife 62-year-old Alima told Stabroek News that her husband had only started working with RK’s Security last Saturday after retiring from his job as a guard with the Corriverton Town Council a few weeks ago.
She said he left home around 6 pm to go to work after telling her that he wanted “bread and egg to take.” The woman said she was at the Skeldon Nursery School where she works as a sweeper when the police visited her and broke the sad news to her.
She said they took her to the scene and she saw her husband lying in the guard hut with a “piece of stick over he eye…” Alima said she saw his food bag close to him but told the police his bicycle, which he purchased last year for $12,000 was missing.
The woman described her husband as a very kind and peaceful person who “never fight with anyone.”
A neighbour who attested to the woman’s claims told this newspaper that Hussein retired from the city council at age 60, but continued working there because of his honesty. He recalled that the man raised his hand at him while going to work on Sunday evening.
Hussein has left to mourn his wife Alima, six children and his grandchildren including a 14-year-old grandson they were taking care of after his mother died at childbirth.
