A Mon Repos family was yesterday plunged into grief following the death of Sheema Mangar, who was the victim of a robbery and hit and run on Friday evening.
Reports reaching Stabroek News said that Mangar, 21, a Demerara Bank employee, died just after 2 am yesterday morning at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, after being transferred from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Mangar was dragged along the road after chasing a man who snatched her cellular phone before jumping into a car and running her over, sometime after 6 pm.
This newspaper visited the family at their East Coast Demerara home and spoke to her father Lalbachan Mangar, who was at the time surrounded by family and friends of the young woman. He said that his daughter also had a hole in her head in addition to the broken arm and facial damage that Stabroek News reported yesterday.
Mangar said that according to the reports he received his daughter had been trailed by two men in a taxi before the incidents. He added that she had regained consciousness for some time while at the GPHC. “At Public she been come round lil bit but she nuh know nuttin but when she go Mercy she wasn’t really conscious but she feel the pain and didn’t know anybody. She was hollerin for mommy and daddy,” the man revealed with a trembling lip. “We thought she woulda come round then cuz we lef deh after 12 and come home.” He said his wife had taken Sheema’s death terribly.
When asked if it was possible that Sheema knew her assailant, the man said he did not know since she did not communicate with anyone following the accident. The police have taken over the matter and a post-mortem examination is expected to be done on Monday, he added.
Friday night, a vendor who operates at Camp Street and North Road, told Stabroek News that the young woman was standing on North Road where persons usually wait for transportation traversing the East Coast Demerara corridor. The vendor, who chose to remain unnamed, said the woman’s cellular phone was snatched by a man who then ran into Camp Street where he had a car parked. “I see she run behind this person and the person had a car there and he run in the car in a speed and she go pon de bonnet and try to tell he stop. He drive off in a speed and she go underneath and the car drag she til to de corner suh,” the woman said pointing to Church Street.
The woman related that the victim was picked up by people in the crowd and taken to the hospital.
However, that eyewitness had said that there was no one else in the car when the man jumped into it. According to the woman, the vehicle had been noticed in the area before. “I feel he mussee know she (Mangar) or something cause she tell me is more than one time she see de car is deh hay and de persons is jus deh waitin,” she said, indicating another woman who frequents the area.
The vendor described the vehicle as being “between a fawn and gray, dem long type car.”
The woman did not get the licence plate number of the car and up to news time there was no word from the police on the incident.
