– relatives not confident cops will probe carefully
How did Jamal ‘Radio’ Beete end up in the George Street house dead and why? This remains a mystery. Police have said nothing about the progress of their investigation and the crime scene remains open.
Beete, 26, of Curtis Street, Albouystown was discovered dead on the second floor of the unoccupied house last Saturday. His body was reportedly discovered by a youngster around 16:00 hrs. He was shot execution style to the head and his sister, Malika, had later told this newspaper that when they arrived at the scene rigor mortis had not yet set in.
The woman had said she believed her brother was killed shortly before the discovery was made. George Street residents, speaking with this newspaper from last Sunday to yesterday, have said that this is disturbing. They pointed out that this would mean one or more assassins took Beete into the house without being seen, murdered him and left again without being seen.
And what of the youngster who reportedly discovered Beete’s body? What would have prompted him to enter the house on that particular day? These are all questions that should be answered by the police’s investigation. But Beete’s relatives have no confidence that they would be answered.
“I fear for my safety,” one man said. “This thing happened in daylight and just thinking about how it could have been done so under the cloak makes me very, very afraid.”
Stabroek News arrived at the scene approximately ten minutes after the discovery was made. Many persons had already gathered and some were trying to console Beete’s grieving girlfriend (and mother of his children), Wanday Lawrence, who lives not far away from the Lot 18 George Street house.
Lawrence had said that she last had contact with Beete around 10:00 hrs that day. He had left her, she said, and indicated that he was going to see some friends. The night before, according to her, Beete had also said that he had a lot of enemies and it would not be safe to have their two-year-old son live with him.
Who were these enemies? Lawrence, Malika and Beete’s mother, Donna, could not say.
Initially, it had been suggested that Beete’s murder was a case of mistaken identity. Reports had said that Beete might have been mistaken for his brother, Tyrone ‘Cobra’ Rowe, who is wanted by police in relation to a string of gun-related crimes.
However, Beete’s relatives had pointed out that Rowe is only 17 years old and the two brothers looked nothing alike. Donna had further insisted that Beete had no criminal record and could not say who would want her son dead. The woman last told this newspaper that she was not confident the police would make a serious effort to investigate Beete’s death.
It has been established by Beete’s girlfriend that she last saw him around 10:00 hrs last Saturday. So where was Beete for six hours (from 10:00 hrs to 16:00 hrs when his body was discovered)? No one has been able to account for his whereabouts.
Several George Street residents have since opined that the reason they might not have noticed anything was because Beete knew his attackers and therefore would not have struggled.
“Think about it this way,” one resident said, “if a couple of men tried to get this ‘Radio’ man into a strange house then he would have definitely kick up a storm. If they had bring him unconscious to the house then people would see them fetching an unconscious man but if you got one or two men walking down a street then you won’t pay them no mind.
“I certainly don’t have the time to peer out my window on Saturday afternoon to see who walking up my street. Listen, at the rate I reasoning this thing for you, you people going to have to pay me or maybe I should go join the police force to help them figure this one out.”
Stabroek News has spoken with several other George Street residents since the incident. Some have declined to comment while the majority had said they could not remember hearing or seeing anything that Saturday.
A resident, who declined to have his name published, recalled that he was at home when he heard a noise which to him sounded like a ball hitting a zinc fence. He dismissed it as children playing cricket which is a regular weekend activity for them. Prior to the sound, he further said, he had been playing music and had stopped to argue with his children, this was around 16:00 hrs.
Later, his children informed him that a body had been found in the house and when he looked outside he saw a crowd. He has been living in the area for about 12 years.
He said the owners of the house where Beete’s body was found reside overseas but a relative had been living there up to one month ago. The owner, according to the man, wanted to demolish the building and erect a new structure.
As a result they spray painted “For sale” on the building and provided a number because they wanted to sell some of the wood.
The relative, according to him, had occupied the third floor.
There was a church on the second flat and someone who worked in the interior had been storing items on the ground floor. After the building was vacated about a month ago, he explained, the ground floor remained as a storage area but he could not say if the items had been removed since.
When informed of the opened front door, the man said he did not know if it was opened by police to gain entry to the place after the body was found or if it was someone else who had opened it.
This newspaper observed that there was a padlock on a side door of the building. During a visit yesterday the grill door and the wooden door to the second floor were still ajar. There was no indication that either door had a padlock. Access to the yard was very easy and there was no barricade on the front gate.
In fact, since the day after the incident police have made no visible effort to secure the crime scene. Last Saturday they arrived at the crime scene shortly after this newspaper and by that time several persons had already been in the house to peer at Beete’s bloodied body.
Further, when questioned about the modus operandi of the shooter and the fact that the house is located not far from the infamous Auby’s Wine Bar (once said to be the meeting place of the Phantom Squad), the resident was adamant that the killing was the work of a professional. He also said that the incident was a worry for him because it happened in his community.
He said he has never seen anyone going in or out of the building in the month it has been empty and that since the incident police have not returned.
