-dredge owner, alleged assailant die from bullet wounds
By Sara Bharrat and Cathy Richards
Miner Clifford Andrews ran for cover after his employer and one of two reported assailants started exchanging gunfire during a deadly ambush at Mousie Landing on Monday. Both shooters are dead and police are currently hunting the second alleged attacker who escaped.
Andrews, 19, of Chenapau, North Pakaraimas was air-dashed to the city hours after the attack and is currently in a serious condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). The man, speaking with Stabroek News from his High Dependency Unit (HDU) bed, said that he and his employer, dredge owner Devon Courtman, were walking along a road in the Mousie Landing, Konawaruk area when they were attacked by two men.
The incident, police said in a press statement last evening, resulted in the deaths of Courtman, 36, of Richmond, Essequibo Coast and the alleged assailant Oswald Bourne, 31, of One Mile, Wismar, Linden. The shooting, according to police, occurred at approximately 12.05 am on Monday.
Despite this, police did not issue a press release on the incident at any time during Monday. Several attempts made to contact Crime Chief Seelall Persaud and Public Relations Officer Ivelaw Whittaker for a comment, about why information was not made available to the media in a more efficient manner, were futile.
One of the assailants, police further reported, had a gun. It was Andrews who told Stabroek News that Bourne was the gunman. During the incident, according to police, Courtman was shot to his chest and killed while the surviving Andrews was struck to his face and shot to his chest. Bourne was fatally shot to his chest and back after the dredge owner returned fire.
As the dredge owner and Bourne exchanged gunfire, Andrews said he managed to run for cover and he believes it was sometime during this that the second attacker managed to escape. The police statement did not identify the second assailant and only said that investigations are ongoing.
Andrews said that he was terrified when the shooting started and his only thought was whether he could get out of the incident alive. Hiding, he said, was the only way he realized he could survive. Bourne, he alleged, intended to kill him and Courtman.
“They (the attackers) know I was a witness…they know I know what they look like so they wanted me dead too,” Andrews told this newspaper.
After the gunfire stopped, Andrews recalled, he ventured out from his hiding spot only to see his employer and one of their attackers lying on the road in pools of blood. Having been struck to his right side of his chest, Andrews explained, he was still in shock and didn’t realize it for several minutes.
“Is when I see them on the road is then I realize I been holding my chest and is like right then the pain knock me and I realize that I get shoot too,” the man said. “Right now I can’t really tell you everything cause the pain getting worse.”
Former employees
Meanwhile, a police source has told this newspaper that a team investigating the Mousie Landing matter returned to Georgetown from the area yesterday afternoon. The bodies of Courtman and Bourne were also flown to the city and are currently at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour.
Investigations, the source said, have revealed that Bourne and his accomplice are former employees of Courtman. The second assailant, according to the source, is also wanted for a series of crimes in the area.
“There two men (Bourne and his accomplice),” the source said, “knew the movements of this dredge owner well…these men obviously knew that Courtman would be coming out with gold and they planned to ambush him.”
The source also said that the surviving assailant would’ve escaped with the gold in Courtman’s possession and may have been injured as well.
“Reports reaching us suggest that he (the second assailant) was shot as well…we are inclined to believe this. If he has been shot it will be only a matter of a short period of time before we locate him,” the source said.
Oswald Bourne
Bourne’s relatives have since refuted the police’s and Andrews’ versions of what happened at Mousie Landing that night.
Carl Bourne said that his brother had no reason to rob anyone since he was a successful businessman. Bourne, Carl alleged, had a misunderstanding with Andrews two Sundays ago and the miner got his employer Courtman involved in the matter.
He and his brother, Carl said, live next to each other at Mousie Landing and operate separate businesses. About a week ago, he told Stabroek News, Bourne was awakened by a noise in his backyard.
“He told me that he heard some funny sounds and when he went and peeped outside he saw” a short guy. “He confronted this man and they ended up fighting but my brother was successful in getting him out of the yard,” Carl said.
On Sunday night, Carl said, he went to bed and left his wife Abigail Bourne outside. Sometime after 11 pm a man came screaming to Abigail asking her where Carl Bourne was and telling her that his brother, Oswald, was lying dead on the road.
Several minutes earlier, Carl said, his wife reported seeing Oswald leave his home with a friend. Oswald and his friend, Abigail later told Carl, were on their way to a popular shop for a few drinks.
“She told me that she hear what sound like gunshots before the man came with the message but she didn’t take it for anything,” Carl said.
When the messenger came Carl was not yet asleep and overheard what he said. He immediately got out of bed, Carl said, and rushed to the location where he found his brother lying on the road dead with another man.
At this point, Carl recalled, he notice blood stains on his brother’s chest and decided to lift Oswald’s t-shirt to investigate further. Carl said he saw a gunshot wound to his brother’s chest and upon examining his back he discovered three stab wounds. The man insisted that these three wounds in his brother’s back were not gunshot wounds.
It was later, Carl continued, that he learnt of a confrontation between Bourne, the now-dead Courtman and his surviving employee Andrews. Bourne’s nephew and a group of friends also left home for the same shop that night.
When Bourne and his friend arrived at the shop, Carl said, Courtman and Andrews were already there. It was there that Andrews pointed to Bourne and told his employer: “Look. That is de man that slap me.” Andrews, Carl alleged, was referring to the earlier confrontation between himself and Bourne two Sundays ago.
“I learnt from persons present at that shop that before Oswald showed up at the shop that man (Courtman) and (his employee) were drinking and that he was trigger happy and was firing off shots for nothing at all,” Carl alleged.
After Andrews pointed out his brother to Courtman, Carl said, Bourne and his friend left the night spot. Shortly after they left the spot Courtman and Andrews reportedly followed them.
Since the incident, Carl told Stabroek News, they have not seen the friend who was with Oswald Bourne that night.
“I guess the man fled during the confrontation and he mus’ be still frighten to come out with all the lies that been going around about what really happen that night,” Carl stated.
