Following the fatal shooting of Vibert Weekes on Robb Street, the management of the Red Dragon nightclub is insisting that there was no connection between the incident and the business.
Weekes, 28, was laid to rest yesterday. Just before midnight last Friday, a gunman shot him some 14 times before escaping. Police are still hunting the perpetrator.
Red Dragon, in a press statement yesterday, informed that Lenray’s Investments, which operates Coney Island, is the owner of the nightclub. The statement, signed by Lenray’s Chief Executive Officer Raymond Alli, said: “We would like to make it clear that at no time at all on either Friday night (Jan 8) or Saturday morning (Jan 9) did Mr. Weekes enter the Red Dragon Club [or] was he even in front of the club’s premises.”
Weekes, according to the statement, was shot in front of Mohamed’s Enterprise, Lot 83 Robb Street on the southern side of the road. Mohamed’s Enterprise is located opposite the night club.
Over the years, the release further said, Red Dragon has given its patrons full security and exercises security checks on anyone entering the club. It also said, “There has never been a single unsavoury incident over the period of 4 years of our existence.”
Police have since said that the investigation into Weekes’ murder is ongoing and several angles are being examined. A senior police officer had told Stabroek News that they have taken note of the man’s involvement last year in a fracas with the proprietor of a popular local fish shop, which had stemmed from a shooting incident at the National Gymnasium.
Weekes, of North/East La Penitence Georgetown, was approached by a lone gunman and was riddled with bullets. Police in a release on Saturday said that Weekes had “just exited his motor vehicle when he was confronted by an armed gunman who discharged a number of rounds which struck him about the body”. He was later pronounced dead on arrival at the Woodlands Hospital. Police sources told this newspaper that he was shot 14 times and the wounds started from his head downwards.
The deceased was implicated in the ugly fracas which occurred on the night of September 22. The incident at the gymnasium was reportedly sparked by a dispute between two men over a bet at a football match and resulted in four teenage boys and a man being shot. The owner of the White Castle Fish Shop Jermaine Langevine, who was said to have fired the shots, was later beaten unconscious, allegedly by Weekes, who was reportedly a relative of the wounded man. Weekes later appeared in court charged with attempted murder and inflicting grievous bodily harm. He was accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Jason Langevine and of attempting to murder Jermaine Langevine. He was granted bail totalling $475,000 on the two charges.
Stabroek News was told by Weekes’ former attorney Basil Williams that the matter had been settled out of court by the two parties. Attorney Gordon Gilhuys represented Langevine.
During 2007 Weekes was charged jointly with the July 26, 2007 armed robbery of a pawnshop in D’Urban Street, Werk-en-Rust. Kevin Gibson of Lot 103 Pineapple Street, East Ruimveldt; and Andre Plass of Lot 160 James and Curtis Streets, Albouystown were also charged. It was alleged that the men were armed with a handgun when they robbed Hardat Muniram of one .32 pistol, 14 live rounds of matching ammunition, gold jewellery and half a million in cash. The items were worth more than $2.6 million.
This newspaper also learnt that Weekes was also implicated in several other incidents. However, repeated efforts to speak with Weekes’ relatives have been futile.