Businessman and avid softball cricketer Bedi Ramjeiwan was brutally beaten and then fatally shot at the head of his street during a brazen morning attack shortly after conducting business at a city bank.
At about 11am yesterday, Ramjeiwan, 38, was returning home in his car when he was confronted by two men along Crown Dam, Industry, on the East Coast of Demerara. He was later beaten about his head with a motor cycle helmet and shot to his chest.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud has since told Stabroek News that one man was arrested. The arrest, according to Persaud, was made based “a description” given to police. The man, he explained, was being questioned by investigators.
When questioned about the motive behind the shooting, Persaud said that “it may have been a robbery but we have no evidence to suggest that it was.” Ramjeiwan, according to him, was moving at a slow pace in his vehicle when he was shot by one of two attackers who were on a motorcycle.
Relatives of the deceased have since indicated that they believe he was trailed to the location after he conducted transactions at a bank in Georgetown. However, it is still unclear whether anything was stolen from him.
In a press release issued yesterday afternoon, police said: “At the time of this press release it has not yet been ascertained if anything was taken away from the victim’s vehicle by the perpetrators. A man has been arrested and a motor cycle seized by the police as the investigations continue.”
When Stabroek News visited the area hours after the incident an eyewitness said at first he thought it was a normal case of “road rage,” which is quite common in the area. The man said he saw two men in the distance and as Ramjeiwan’s car turned off of Industry Railway Embankment Road into Crown Dam they launched their attack. “Them park the scooter and go in front of the car and try to stop he,” the eyewitness recounted. “One guh pull open the door and try fuh pull he out and then one tek the helmet and start lash he and lash he over and over, ya hear this man hollering and he didn’t stop the car. The car just kept rolling and rolling and went into the drain that is when they stop.”
The eyewitness further recounted: “Them manage to pull he out lil and they beat he wid the helmet till he head burst and the helmet split in two. After the helmet split in two and they keep pulling whilst other people now realise what happening….”
Another motorist, the man said, came out of his vehicle and ran for assistance after he noticed that the men had a gun. “When they [the people] go running back out they [the robbers] pull out the gun and that is when they shoot he [Ramjeiwan],” the eyewitness added.
The eyewitness noted that the men, after shooting Ramjeiwan, then jumped onto the scooter and made good their escape, heading in the direction of Georgetown.
Ramjeiwan was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital after the incident and succumbed some time around 1pm to his injuries.
Shock
At the 5 Crown Dam, Industry home of Ramjeiwan yesterday afternoon, relatives and friends gathered to console each other. Ramjeiwan’s mother was too emotional to speak and his cousin, Minister of Human Services and Social Security Priya Manickchand, was compiling what appeared to be his death announcement.
His death came as a shock to many persons.
Ramjeiwan was a father of two young children. His wife and children were said to be on vacation overseas. He was described as a joyful person. The last of three siblings, Ramjeiwan leaves to mourn his parents, wife and children along with his cricket team, The Guyana Floodlights Softball Cricket Association.
An avid cricketer, Ramjeiwan was described by fellow member Rickey Deonarine as a person who was very dedicated to his team. Deonarine said that Ramjeiwan played an instrumental role in organising fundraising activities for the Association.
He was called a “tireless player for the association” and was “a very good batsman”. “He is very dedicated to his family, friends and team,” added Deonarine, who is the vice president of the Guyana Floodlights Softball Cricket Association.
Also expressing shock at Ramjeiwan’s passing was the executive secretary of the Guyana Softball League, Leonard Harrypersaud. Harrypersaud noted that he and Ramjeiwan grew up together in Industry. “He was a very good man. I am shocked to hear that this has transpired,” he added.
Harrypersaud also painted a picture of Ramjeiwan being a committed person to the game of cricket stating that he had “expended a lot of finance to softball.” He added that Ramjeiwan also did a great deal for his community and expressed the belief that Ramjeiwan “deserves a medal of service” for the contribution he has made to the industry community.
“He [was] a role model in his community,” Harrypersaud stated.
Trailed
The man’s niece, who is the Managing Director of the family business Ramjeiwan’s Auto and General Store, said that Ramjeiwan usually visited the bank regularly to change cheques and transact other related business.
Other relatives raised the possibility that the man had been trailed from the city bank after transacting his business and several said that they believed that this was the case. Relatives declined to divulge further details to this newspaper.
However, a senior police source told Stabroek News that Ramjeiwan reportedly left his Crown Dam home alone some time between 8am and 9am yesterday. The man, according to the source, made his way to the bank without any stops, went in and spent just under an hour inside. The source said that so far information available to police does not suggest that Ramjeiwan made any stops after he left the bank. “If he was trailed to that location, then one would believe that it would be from the bank to that area… the area would definitely force him to drive at a slow pace,” the source said.
Since last January there have been several similar cases where armed motorcycle bandits pounce on unsuspecting customers who leave city banks with large amounts of money.
A security expert, who spoke with Stabroek News last August, had said that the robbers usually work in pairs and travel on a motorcycle. They often hang around Camp Street, Water Street or Carmichael Street, where the banks are situated and look for easy targets. Police Commissioner Henry Greene later said that in the past there have been proven cases of collusion between bank employees and the bandits.
In January, fish vendor Irene Arjune was robbed of $515, 000 and two plane tickets valued at $160,000 by an armed attacker, shortly after leaving a city bank. The perpetrators were later apprehended and charged.
Two months later, a Berbice couple was trailed to hardware store by bandits and robbed of a quantity of cash at gunpoint. Nazeela Sookhdeo had said that she believed she and her husband, Mahendra, were followed to the store after they conducted transactions at the bank. There have also been three other cases this year where victims were trailed by robbers from the airport and then attacked. During the first quarter of this year there were 50 cases of armed robbery reported by police, with seven occurring in police C Division (East Coast Demerara).
Other similar instances of persons who were allegedly trailed and robbed after visiting the bank include Patricia Crossman and Lakeram Bishundial. Crossman was robbed of a total $1,061,000 in cash and cosmetics last July. The robber, who was subsequently charged, was accused of trailing Crossman from a city bank to a restaurant before relieving her of her cash.
Then there was the case of Bishundial, called Mohan, of Manilla, Mahaica who was shot twice and died after being robbed. The man had stopped at a Hope, East Coast Demerara location to speak with his younger brother, Totaram, who was returning to Mahaica from Georgetown, where he had gone to withdraw money from the bank. It was during this time that the gunmen pulled up alongside Lakeram’s parked truck. It is believed that the bandits trailed the younger Bishundial brother from Georgetown.
