The man who police say was holding the grenade when it exploded at the Stabroek Market square on Wednesday morning has still not been positively identified.
On Friday, Ted Sabat, owner of Rainbow River Safari, told this newspaper that the dead man called ‘American’ could very well be his former employee Gordon Baird. He had told Stabroek News that he had not yet contacted the police because he was not sure exactly where to go.
When contacted yesterday, Sabat said he was waiting for the police to contact him. “I haven’t head from them,” he said. “I’m very easy to reach,” he added.
A police source told Stabroek News yesterday that normally someone who believes they know the identity of such an unidentified victim would contact the police.
“If a person feels he can ID someone, that person would go to Brickdam… communicate this to the police then an officer would accompany them to Lyken’s for the identification,” the source said.
When this information was communicated to Sabat, he said he would pursue this route. Sabat said that while he cannot be certain as yet that the dead man is Baird, there is strong evidence to support his view.
Baird, Sabat told Stabroek News, had worked with him three to four years ago as a tour guide and stores operator. He said that Baird would have been in his 40s or 50s. He described Baird as a very honest and dependable worker.
The deceased, according to him, had been imprisoned for shooting someone in the US and was subsequently deported.
Baird was also described as being a “very educated” man who was determined to make efforts to return to the US after the five-year period had elapsed. “He and I often had long conversations and he told me about his wife and children back in the US. But it has been so long and I can’t remember much of the details. I have to sit and reflect,” Sabat said.
“The last time I saw him was at the Stabroek Market area. He used to be cleaning out stalls and so on for people there,” he said.
When this newspaper visited the Stabroek Market on Thursday vendors said ‘American’ was well known among them and described him as a “quiet” and “honest” man.
Meanwhile, on Friday another family turned up at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour claiming that the dead may have been their relative Troy Hollingsworth.
However, Colin Bostwick, the man’s uncle, told Stabroek News yesterday that he did not believe the dead man was his nephew. “My sister is telling me that it is him because of this cut in his hand but this body is too tall and big up to be him,” Bostwick said.
Yesterday, an aunt of Hollingsworth told this newspaper that they had found him. She said too that on the day in question the man had visited his father and had subsequently made contact via telephone with his mother who resides overseas.
