Seven years after city council worker Andrew Bess was gunned down, his widow believes that the five gunmen who stormed their North Ruimveldt grocery were sent to kill him and that the killers are roaming freely although police have solid evidence that links them to the crime.
Justice is the only thing floating in the minds of Bess’s family, according to his wife, Cheryl, who believes that an affair her husband had might point the way to those responsible for his death.
The woman also says that an eyewitness could have helped secure convictions with the information that he had, but he migrated after the alleged killers made threats to his life. Based on what this newspaper was told, the eyewitness had seen the men sitting on a donkey cart, minutes before the invasion that claimed Bess’s life.
On October 30, 2004, Bess called ‘Fineman’ and ‘Troy Bess,’ and his wife were in their home in Postal Housing Scheme, North Ruimveldt when five unmasked men armed with guns forced their way into the house, which adjoined their shop. They were held up at gunpoint by the men. After fatally shooting Bess in the chest, the men escaped with $62,000 and some gold jewellery.
Enice Barnwell, a South Ruimveldt man, was charged with the murder on March 15, 2005, after he was allegedly identified as one of the invaders. He was, however, released about a year later owing to the lack of evidence.
A frustrated Cheryl said that all she needs is justice for her husband and it is painful to see one of the suspects walking the streets a free man. She, along with her daughter Ashanda, said that whenever the man sees them he quickly disappears.
“Since de murder nothing ain’t happening. These guys just walking up and down the road scotch free,” Ashanda said.
Cheryl recalled that months after the murder, a man approached her in Bourda Market and accused her of leading police to kick down the door of his Bare Root, East Coast Demerara home. The widow said the episode was very weird because the man called her by name and she did not know who he was. She said what the man was talking about was indeed true but only someone close to the investigation would have known what had happened at Bare Root, where police had gone to look for a suspect.
She admitted that she did not see a face during the invasion but could recognise one of the men by his body structure. “That is a body structure I would never forget and he hand, because he had the gun in he hand and he hand fine,” she stressed.
The woman said that when the man approached her she instantly recognized his voice. “I am not a stupid woman… I was able to put two and two together to know that it was he,” she told this newspaper, while adding that the man cursed her terribly.
She later learnt that the man who approached her in the market was a relative of a woman who had an extra-marital relationship with her husband that ended badly.
Police, Cheryl said, were given this piece of information but from all appearances it was not taken seriously.
Affair
She recalled that some time before the murder, the woman confronted her and she made a report to police, which led her husband to admit to the affair. Her husband, she added, later confronted the woman at her workplace and there was a heated argument between them. The woman contacted her brother and when he arrived the confrontation continued. According to Cheryl, it was because of that day’s occurrence that the woman was suspended from her job and she was very angry about that.
Asked if she is fearful that harm will come her way if she continues to speak out, the mother of four said “inequity that is what I am afraid of.” She added that all she is pleading for is justice and for the police to open their eyes to the evidence they have.
As she recalled the home invasion, she said that there was not enough evidence in her mind to point in the direction of a robbery. She explained that her husband posed no threat to the men and yet he was shot in the chest. She also noted that the men made no attempt to search the house to look for valuables even though there were five of them.
Cheryl said her husband said nothing to the men, which led her to believe that he knew who they were. She insisted that he just stood with his hands outstretched. She said that the next thing she knew her husband was lying on the floor bleeding from a single gunshot wound. The gunman, who was watching over her, kept telling her not to look at his face. Later, there was an exchange between two of the gunmen, during which one was saying that the man had to be killed.
After the shooting, the still grief-stricken Cheryl said, she started to scream and the gunmen instructed her to be quiet. One of the gunmen then pulled her by her hair and requested valuables before stripping her of the gold ring she was wearing. She said demands were made for money.
Cheryl said she was so traumatized that she went into the wrong room. She said that a real bandit would have searched that room regardless but in this instance gunman just looked around and escorted her out of the room and into the next one where the money was hidden.
The woman told this newspaper that after collecting the money, the man threw some clothing on the ground and picked up a small Discman. She explained that this was just to make it look like a robbery. “They didn’t tumble up and bruk up meh whole house,” she said, stressing “they come fuh kill he. They ain’t come to rob.”
The woman said that is frustrated. “Is not no fowl they kill. Is not dag they kill. Even if they kill a dag you does go to the station much less a human,” she said, her voice filled with emotion. She added that the police could have done a lot more to ensure the arrest and successful prosecution of the suspects.
Cheryl and her daughter stated that one of the suspects is related to a policeman and they opined that this is why the wheels of justice are turning so slowly for them.
She said she has since closed the shop and found other employment to care for her children. “All ah din want was meh husband back but ah can’t get he back. Leh meh get lil justice nuh,” she said, close to tears. “At least they could seh all right, leh poor man feel good that we get lil justice.”
She expressed the hope that some day she will get justice. “I glad if this one story could pick up for me. For meh chirren them sake,” she said, noting sadly that her husband did not even live to become a grandfather.
