A Schenectady County grand jury yesterday handed up a 32-count indictment formally charging four persons in connection with the shooting to death of a Guyanese man in February that prosecutors now say was a deadly result of a long-standing feud between two rival groups of Guyanese.
“We believe the shooting was the product of an ongoing feud between the extended Parbhudial family and another group of Guyanese residents and things went from bad to worse,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Philip Mueller was quoted as saying in the Albany Times Union online.
Vishan Parbhudial, 23, and his 21-year-old sister Angelene Parbhudial live at 935 Maple Avenue, the same street where 26-year-old Ganesh Ramgoolam was gunned down after stepping out of a vehicle in the early morning hours of February 20.
The Parbhudial siblings along with their cousin, Dhanashar ‘Tony’ Persaud, 23, also of Schenectady, and Angelene’s boyfriend, Richard Baliraj, 21, of Queens, were all indicted on charges of second-degree murder, gang assault, weapons possession, tampering with physical evidence, and two counts of menacing, hindering prosecution, perjury, and making an apparently sworn false written statement. Additionally, Angelene is charged with two counts of tampering with physical evidence.
Prosecutors say Ramgoolam was in a car being driven by a friend when it was abruptly cut off and blocked by another Parbhudial family member and her boyfriend who were not charged.
When the married father of two left the vehicle, he was accosted and surrounded by the four members of the Parbhudial family who were armed with rifles and a baseball bat, prosecutors added. Ramgoolam was shot five times and died at the scene. His assailants fled.
The next day, two police officers who were part of a team that stormed 935 Maple Avenue, were slightly injured when Adrian Parbhudial — Vishan and Angelene Parbhudial’s brother — fired one shot from a 12-gauge shotgun.
Adrian Parbhudial was arraigned earlier this week on an attempted first-degree murder charge over firing on the officers, but police said they have so far uncovered nothing linking him to Ramgoolam’s death. Adrian Parbhudial has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
