A Venezuelan man was yesterday charged with the attempted murder of a Corentyne hotelier in a bizarre attack that eventually led to the death of a fellow countryman.
Jose Abraham Severino Lopez was yesterday charged with the attempted murder of Malinmar hotel owner, Rahat Ally, last Friday. The Venezuelan appeared before the Whim Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Magistrate Chandra Sohan remanded the man to prison and his next court appearance will be on August 14.
The man and his accomplice, Robielkis Rubrigel Montee De Oca Arias, had rented a room at Ally’s hotel and then lured the man to the room on the pretext of having trouble with the shower.
Ally was attacked by the men and a scuffle ensued during which a round was discharged. Lopez and Arias then attempted to escape but were intercepted by the Berbice Anti Smuggling Squad (BASS) and police ranks who had promptly responded.
Both men were taken into police custody. Arias had a wound over his left eye and was taken to the Skeldon Hospital on Friday night for treatment and then returned to the custody of the police. On Saturday at around 11 am, it was observed that he was panting for breath and was rushed to the Skeldon Hospital where he succumbed while receiving medical attention. A post-mortem examination is to be done.
Meanwhile, the owner of the Hotel at Number 78 Village, Corriverton is recovering from injuries he sustained during the attempted robbery/murder and while he is still traumatized by the ordeal he is thankful to be alive.
Around 7 pm on Friday the two Venezuelans gun-butted Ally on his head, face and other parts of his body, causing him to bleed profusely and to lose one of his teeth.
During a struggle to wrest the gun from one of the bandits a shot rang out. The men also bound Ally with scotch tape but he screamed loudly as they were doing so.
His screams alerted his reputed wife and his children who were in the lower flat of the building that something was amiss and they sought the help of a resident who was standing in front of the hotel. The friend immediately ran to his rescue and averted what relatives felt could have been “a worst case scenario.”
All this happened in a room that the men had booked at around 5 pm. When Stabroek News visited the business place yesterday relatives said that shortly after the men entered they complained that the shower was having problems and requested to “see the boss.”
One of Ally’s daughters responded that her father was not around and offered to send someone else to fix the shower. But according to relatives they insisted that they wanted Ally to check the problem.
They said that one of the men opened the door and as Ally was entering the other man pushed him in and started to hit him with the gun butt. They also grabbed the key to his office in the lower flat and to his house.
Though he was bleeding the businessman grabbed the gun and at this stage they threw him on the ground and started to kick him and bind him with the scotch tape.
The rescuer started to bang on the door loudly and one of the bandits opened the door and pulled him into the room and placed the gun to his head. Like Ally, he too held onto the hand with the gun.
Taking no chances, the men decided to abandon their mission and run out of the room, closing the door behind them. They tried to escape by scaling the fence at the back of the hotel that leads to a boat landing for the Suriname backtrack route.
But both men fell during their escape bid and sustained injuries. They continued towards the landing and according to police sources they fell again on the “jetty.”
Reports are that they boarded a boat that had just transported passengers from Suriname and commanded the captain to move but he refused. They also dealt him several blows in a desperate bid to get away but by then they were distracted by shots being fired by the Berbice Anti-Smuggling Squad.
The men were arrested and taken to the Springlands Police Station.
This newspaper understands that the men left behind a phone book, a cellular phone and a quantity of tablets that relatives learnt would be used to “slow your heart rate”.
Meanwhile, a police source said that the report carried in the Kaieteur News yesterday that the men might have been hired to kidnap Ally and take him to Suriname “took me by surprise.”
He said the men did not give any statements to the police as they pretended that they did not speak English.
He said the only person they communicated with was the Cuban doctor who treated them.
Meanwhile the family is also concerned that the Guyana Times reported that the man’s wife Maureen Ally spoke to them when in fact he separated from his wife two years ago and she is now residing in Canada.
