Six of the seven murders committed in April were of men and five of them remain unsolved to date.
Relatives of a salted fish exporter, a taxi driver, a guest house owner and a young man fetching scrap iron are still looking for the motives behind their murders.
According to Stabroek News’ records, the seven murders included two executions and two knifings. Only in two of the cases have persons been arrested and charged, while those held in the other matters were released after questioning.
The April figure is the second lowest since the start of the year. In January, there were 15 murders, February recorded six while in March ten murders were committed.
The brutal deaths of Rajendra Sonilall, Shawn Dummett, Ryan Brimmer, Junior Richards called ‘Non Stop’ and Inshan Ally remained unsolved.
On April 8 around 7:30 pm a lone gunman pumped four bullets into 41-year-old Sonilall as he sat alone under a shed near his Mon Repos Pasture, East Coast Demerara business place located a short distance from his home. He was shot twice to the head, once to the throat and another bullet pierced his stomach. Nothing was stolen from him although according to reports he had a substantial amount of cash and jewellery at the time.
The assailant was said to be cloaked in a coat and had his face covered. After shooting
Sonilall, the gunman walked towards the Railway Line and boarded a car that was waiting for him.
Following the killing, the man’s relatives said someone had owed him a debt that amounted to millions of dollars and they had opined that this was the motive.
Police arrested two East Coast Demerara associates of the man but so far nothing has been found to spark a further investigation or the institution of criminal charges.
Sonilall’s wife had told this newspaper that the salted fish exporter had returned from a Lethem trip the previous week acting strangely and when she questioned him he complained about persons owing him large sums of money. He did not reveal the amounts to her.
She had recalled too that some time before the killing, a teen who worked with Sonilall had called him saying that he wanted ice cream. The teen had called the night before with this same request.
The circumstances behind the shooting of Dummett a taxi driver of Lamaha Gardens by “passengers” is still unclear. Dummett was shot on April 13 on Princes Street and died four days later in hospital. From all accounts, the 37-year-old who operated from Camp Street picked up two men at an unknown location and while driving along Princes Street around 2.30 pm, the vehicle, PLL 3474, stopped suddenly. Dummett was then seen running from it with the two men, one of whom was discharging rounds, in hot pursuit. The man collapsed in a nearby yard after being shot twice in the chest and once in the abdomen.
He was then kicked by one of the men while the other was discharging rounds, none of which hit Dummett. The man was unsuccessful in defending himself with a knife that was later found in his possession.
During the ordeal, one of the men was overheard saying “Ya s#%^t got to f&*^ing dead.” When residents started peeping out, the men fled through the nearby South Alley which connects to Norton Street.
One witness said he initially thought that the men were plain clothes policemen because of the weapons being used and their tidy attire, but he realised what was happening when Dummett began hollering for “thief”.
At the time of the incident, the man was wearing gold jewellery but this was not taken
by the men during the attack. Dummett’s car, which was left abandoned on Princes Street, was later lodged at the East La Penitence Police Station. Relatives said that it could have been an attempted robbery but investigators and residents had told this newspaper that to them it did not appear so.
Head bashed in
On April 21, an employee found Richards, the owner of Le Rich Guest House dead in the bedroom of his Eccles home. He sustained multiple wounds to the head which were suspected to have been inflicted by bricks that were found near the body.
The killer(s) ransacked the house but no one in the area had recalled any strange noises emanating from the house prior to the discovery.
The man’s neighbours related that the night before, some time after 10, a car was parked on the road in front of the house with its hazard lights on for a considerable amount of time.
Police investigators had told this newspaper that information revealed that two persons had visited the man the evening before and they might be the last persons to have been in contact with him. It is unclear if those persons were ever found.
Investigators spent close to three hours scouring the scene and a tracker dog trailed the street leading to a location at the southern eastern periphery of the community; but they didn’t find anything.
Relatives who had gathered at the scene speculated about the motive behind the man’s death with some stating that he might have known his killers.
Brimmer, a Zeskendren, Mahaicony resident was staying with relatives in Albouystown for less than two weeks. On April 26, around 1 am while he was offloading scrap iron from a cart, a gunman rode up on a bicycle and shot him dead.
Relatives who were with the 20-year-old at the time, said they recognized the gunman and they believed that the incident was a case of mistaken identity. They suspected that the gunman was after a cousin who resembled Brimmer. From all accounts, Brimmer and two cousins he was with at the time tried desperately to escape but the gunman focused his attention only on Brimmer.
He abandoned his bicycle and pursued Brimmer on foot.
Brimmer, reports said, ran from Hill Street and into James Street where he collapsed after sustaining a gunshot wound to the back. When Brimmer hit the ground his attacker immediately moved in on him and, according to witnesses, shot the man in the head. The gunman then dashed back to Hill Street and escaped on his bicycle. A senior police officer has since told this newspaper that the gunman has not yet been found but investigations are still ongoing.
Meanwhile, persons have been charged with the murders of Michael ‘Prickle’ Kissoon and Donnette Ward, which occurred on April 11 and 24 respectively.
Kissoon was killed in a known drug yard on the eastern outskirts of New Amsterdam. According to the police the 37-year-old man was resting on a mattress in a “drug yard” when the alleged attacker, Wainwright Telford, 48, called ‘Baker’ starting hacking away at him. His neck appeared to be almost severed and he also sustained chops to his head, back, hands and other parts of his body. The wounded man was later pronounced dead on arrival at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
Telford appeared before Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo, at the New Amsterdam Court two days later charged with murder.
Ward, the only female to be killed in April was brutally stabbed to death, reportedly by her 59-year-old husband Geoffrey, who has since been charged.
The incident was said to have brought an end to a turbulent seven-year marriage. Police had said that at around 10:30 am, the accused went to the home of his wife’s mother, at Herstelling, where Ward, a 36-year-old Barbados-based Guyanese, was staying. An argument soon ensued between the accused and his wife, which resulted in him allegedly stabbing her with a knife about her body.
Inshan Ally was the seventh murder victim in April. His decomposing body was discovered on April 30 around 6.45 am floating in a canal in the Goed Fortuin backdam.
A post-mortem examination done days later revealed that he died as a result of asphyxiation due to drowning and blunt cranial trauma.
Though several persons were arrested, investigators have been unable to make a breakthrough in the case and some residents remained convinced that he was beaten to death then dumped there.
