A 48-year-old scrap iron collector was yesterday morning gunned down on D’Urban Street, Wortmanville in the vicinity of Pearl’s Bakery in what has so far been identified as an “unnecessary confrontation”.
Hours after the shooting the perpetrator, identified as ‘Beast’, a city bus driver was reportedly arrested by police.
Allan Wayne Barker called ‘Fast Walk’ and `Blam Blam’, a father of 14, who resided at East Ruimveldt Front Road died before he could receive medical attention.
He was left lying on the roadway in front of the bakery until undertakers from the Lyken’s Funeral Home arrived and removed him. His push cart, containing pieces of scrap iron and empty bottles, was still on the scene when this newspaper arrived.
Police officials said that Barker sustained a single gunshot wound to the head. Stabroek News was told that based on reports the two had an altercation in which the shooter was the aggressor. The police officials said there was nothing to suggest that the two men knew each other or had a previous altercation.
A man, who said that he was close to Barker, but who did not want to be identified, said that earlier they were walking and picking up bottles (glass and plastic) as well as “fine, fine metal and scraps around to place” to sell.
He said they scoured the back road (Mandela Avenue) then Cemetery Road before heading to Pearl’s Bakery to collect the bag of tennis rolls, which is shared out to “vagrants” at 7 o’ clock every morning.
The man, in tears, recalled that they arrived about half an hour early and sat with other “vagrants” waiting for the sharing to start.
He said Barker was standing at corner and he picked up two Guinness bottles from that area. He said Barker was heading across the road when a man walked up and sat on the corner after hanging a cage with a bird on a lantern post. Moments later, he said, he heard the man shouting at Barker: “move from in front hey before ah bus’ ya head”.
Barker, he recalled, said in response, “wait is just suh ya does bus’ people head. You gatta know is who head to bus”.
With tears rolling down his cheeks, the man said Barker walked off and went to his cart in which he placed the two bottles. The man sitting at the corner, he said, got up and “start advancing he. I hearing the commotion so I turning and telling the person that it ain’t call fuh all ah dat is just reason de man talking… But de man walk up to de man [Barker] and straight right to he.”
The man told Stabroek News that after he was cuffed, Barker pulled away and before he knew it, the other man pushed his hand in his waist and pulled out a gun. “He swing this gun fuh like lash this man in he head and then I hear pow and then I see a big hole in this man head,” he said tearfully.
He said Barker, with blood oozing from his head, fell, while the shooter calmly collected his bird from the lantern post and walked through Hardina Street in the direction of Norton Street.
The man said that no one tried to stop the gunman and he opined that those around were afraid of the weapon he was carrying.
Sniffing, he said that Barker fell onto his cart and blood kept gushing out of his wound. He said he asked a nearby guard and others who were around to assist his wounded friend but no help was forthcoming.
“They know he get shoot and no one din comin… everybody just come and watch. Just because [he is] a man dressed in rags?” he wept. He said his friend should have been treated like any other person and given assistance.
When Stabroek News spoke to relatives they were in shock.
A relative identified as Natasha said that she got a message that he had been shot but by the time she arrived on the scene the body had already been removed. She and other relatives congregated outside Lyken’s to get a glimpse of the body. She said that as far as she knew Barker had no existing problems with anyone.
Lisa Niles, the mother of two of his children, said the death was shocking as she had spoken to him only last Thursday. She said that during their discussions they were focused on an issue involving her daughter and another of his children. She said that it was Barker’s sister who called her and informed her of the shooting.
When police arrived at the scene, crime scene investigators and detectives were conducting their investigations. They were able to quickly gather information on the identity of the shooter.