The dredge owner who was killed during an ambush at Mousie Landing just after midnight on Monday died from perforation of the heart and lungs due to gunshot wound.
This is according to a police press release issued on Friday. The autopsy, they said, was conducted by Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh. Police also reported that the dredge owner has been identified by his parents as Devin Baird, 20, of Mainstay, Essequibo.
However, police had earlier identified the man as Devon Thomas, Devon Courtman and David Courtman. They had contacted the mother of David Courtman, who is alive, and told her that her son had died. When the distressed woman showed up at the morgue on Wednesday last she discovered that it was not her son.
On Thursday evening police issued a press release requesting help in identifying the dead man. The dead man’s reputed wife, Julia, who had only identified him as “Devon” insisted that he went by the last name Thomas but she was not completely sure if this was his legal name.
Late Thursday night Stabroek News learnt from Julia, via an interpreter, that she had been contacted by the dead dredge owner’s mother who had identified him by a picture published in that day’s edition of the Stabroek News. The mother, Julia had said, told her that Devon’s legal name was Davindra Williams.
Once again the deceased has been given a different name. Several efforts made to contact the man’s reputed wife on Friday were futile.
Just after midnight on Monday, police had said, the dredge owner and a miner, Clifford Andrews, were walking along a road at Mousie Landing when they were ambushed by two men. The dredge owner and one of the attackers, identified as Oswald Bourne, exchanged gunfire.
During the shooting Bourne and the dredge owner were fatally wounded and Andrews sustained a gunshot wound to the chest. The second assailant escaped and police have since arrested that suspect’s brother. Stabroek News could not confirm whether the escapee’s brother remained in police custody as the 72 hours during which they can legally hold a person for questioning elapsed on Friday.
Meanwhile, Andrews remains in a stable condition in the Male Open Ward at the Georgetown Public Hospital.