A post-mortem examination conducted yesterday on the remains of Leonard Mahadeo called `Lenny’ revealed that he died from multiple gunshot wounds.
While Crime Chief Seelall Persaud could not be reached for comment on this latest execution-style killing, this newspaper was told that Mahadeo sustained at least eight gunshot wounds mostly to the chest.
Up to late yesterday afternoon, the two men who were arrested as part of police investigations remained in police custody. When contacted a senior police officer would only say “those being questioned are still being questioned”. One of the men lives in the city while the other is a businessman who resides at Friendship, East Coast Demerara. It is unclear how they are being linked to the killing.
Last Friday night, the 48-year-old Diamond New Scheme businessman was sitting alone at the Soca Paradise Bar at Eccles, East Bank Demerara when he came under fire from two masked men, both armed with what appeared to be assault rifles.
The gunmen walked into the bar between 10:30 pm and 10:45 pm and shot him at point blank range as he sat in a chair. It was reported that he did not appear alarmed although he saw the gunmen as they entered the bar armed.
The owner of the bar and his wife said they dived for cover and only got up after they were certain the perpetrators had left the premises. They saw Mahadeo slumped in a corner; he had fallen out of the chair and was lying in a pool of blood.
Since his death, there have been reports that Mahadeo was being linked to several drug busts including the interception of two bags with cocaine that were thrown over the fence at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport on March 10.
Mahadeo, who had been acquitted after a trial in 1996 on charges stemming from his alleged involvement in an international cocaine racket, had been the victim of another bar attack by a gunman in 2008. Senior police officials have since said that the father of six had always been on their radar in cocaine busts but there was never enough evidence to lay charges against him.
