Minutes before Patrick Goodluck and Godfrey Grootfaam were riddled with bullets on Monday night a third man was seen in their car which was parked on Stone Avenue.
New information reaching this newspaper indicates that the now dead men along with the third man were in the car which was parked on the roadway near the entrance to the Redeemer Primary School when they were approached by a man who requested a phone call.
Yesterday the man explained that he urgently needed a call since his cell phone credit had expired while he was speaking to his spouse and he immediately wanted to re-establish contact with her.
The man said that there were three men sitting in the car and he approached the driver (Goodluck) requesting a call. The driver, who was unknown to him, asked if he didn’t have money to buy a phone card and when he responded in the negative, the driver handed him a $1000 to buy one.
The man said that he left to buy the phone card at a store on Sheriff Street and later heard a volley of gunfire and immediately ducked for cover. He told Stabroek News that about ten minutes had elapsed from the time he got the money to when he heard the gunfire. When he left the area, the car was still parked at the spot and there was a motor cycle parked at the side of it.
Later when he went to the scene of the shooting he recalled, the third man who was sitting in the back seat of the car was missing.
“There is no way he coulda escape dat. If he been in dat car, he woulda dead”, the man said adding that the motor cycle was lying on its side almost under the car.
He told Stabroek News that an eyewitness recalled that the car with the two men was turning north on Stone Avenue when three men opened fire on the vehicle. According to the woman, he said that the gunmen’s car was parked behind a lantern post. There were four men in the vehicle and as the car with the two men approached the junction, three of the men came out and unleashed “Christmas time bullets”.
He recalled the woman telling him that she was so terrified that she rolled into the grass to hide. The shattered glass on the roadway opposite the school which was still evident yesterday supports the theory that the car came under attack on Royal Drive. It is believed that after the man left to get the phone card, Goodluck returned to Royal Drive and was making his way out of that street when they came under attack.
The man also told this newspaper yesterday, that the sight of the men was gruesome and that one of them was almost unrecognisable because of the damage to his face. He opined that AK 47s were used in the incident.
“This was de fus time ah man ever give me a $1000 dollar in me life and now de man dead”, he said shaking his head.
Meanwhile, a woman who was in the area at the time recalled hearing around 30 gunshots and later observed the men in the bullet-riddled car but did not stick around for long.
Police sources have told this newspaper that from all indications, Goodluck who was “a known character” to police was the gunmen’s target and that the other man who was killed might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday confirmed that the mother of two of Goodluck’s children was arrested for removing “something”, from the scene prior to the police’s arrival. Persaud did not revealed what was taken. He told this newspaper that no gun or ammunition was found in the men’s possession.
Persaud said too that the woman has since given a statement and has returned the things that she took. He could not say if the woman was released from police custody.
Police had said in a statement that they are investigating the murders of Goodluck, 39, a mason of Perth Village, Mahaicony and Grootfaam called ‘Mosquito’, 29, of Can-terbury Walk, Beterverwagt-ing, East Coast Demerara.
The incident, according to them, occurred at about 8.15 pm on Monday. The two men were in motor car PMM 9074, an AT 212 Carina driven by Goodluck, when at Royal Drive and Stone Avenue, three suspects drove up in another car, exited and fired several shots at the victim’s vehicle, then drove away.
Prior to the attack, Goodluck had received a call on his mobile phone, which relatives believed was the call of death for him. Amidst loud wailing, a daughter of Goodluck told reporters that her father had gone to visit them, which he did regularly. The young woman, who was being comforted by other siblings, said her father, who had eight children with the youngest only celebrating her first birthday last Thursday, was chatting with them when he received the call. Grootfaam, according to some, was at the same address and had just had his hair braided. Goodluck’s daughter, and others at the scene, said they believed Goodluck was called to his death because the phone call was very suspicious.
