Kelvin Poonsammy, the gunman who invaded the Dutch Bottle Café last Friday, died as a result of perforation of the lungs and blunt trauma to the head, a post-mortem examination has found.
Dr Nehaul Singh made the finding yesterday after conducting a post-mortem examination on the man’s body.
Poonsammy, 22, of Lot 12 Joseph Pollydore Street, Lodge, Georgetown, was discovered in an unconscious state at the Brickdam lockups on Sunday and was then transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where he later died, police said.
On Friday evening, Poonsammy along with two others invaded the North Road, Bourda restaurant and robbed the manager, Renata Chuck-a-Sang, of a laptop and a cell phone. His two accomplices managed to escape with the items while Poonsammy was held because of the resistance put up by the female manager.
The man was allegedly beaten by taxi drivers and guards of other nearby businesses after customers and staff members alerted the public with their loud screams. He was arrested that evening and according to the police, was taken to the GPH, where he was treated, discharged and then placed in custody.
According to the restaurant’s employees, Poonsammy was the only one of the three perpetrators who was armed, and had held a waiter at gunpoint as he demanded cash. Later, he gun-butted Chuck-a-Sang several times.
When Stabroek News spoke to Poonsammy’s girlfriend, Arifa Lisa, last evening, she said she did not know he was involved in crimes but admitted that she spoke to him countless times about his friends. “I used to talk to he like if he is meh son,” the young woman stated.
Another friend of Poonsammy also indicated that the man would “get caught up in the wrong company and end up in problems.”
Meanwhile, Chuck-a-Sang remains a patient of the Georgetown Public Hospital, where she underwent a minor surgery to her face.
According to the woman’s brother, Nicholas Chuck-a-Sang, the attack was a rush and he believes that his sister would be unable to identify Poonsammy as one of the attackers. “She remembers being hit but I doubt she remember what he looks like… she went straight into it,” he noted.
He indicated that the swelling on the woman’s face has reduced and she is now in “good spirits.”
A police source stated that the Police’s Office of Professional Responsibility has launched an investigation into the man’s death. The source said that prisoners had alerted ranks on duty on morning of his death that Poonsammy had fallen unconscious.
