A gold miner was shot dead last night after four men entered his Lot 48 Middle Street, Mc Doom, East Bank home and then escaped with an undisclosed sum of cash.
Dead is 38 year-old, Gavin Mc Neil, who sustained four gunshots to the neck around 8 pm. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital where he was rushed after the shooting. A source told this newspaper that four men carried out the attack before fleeing to the nearby cane fields.
His wife, Melissa Mc Neil who was covered in blood, said that the men came to their home to rob them. She stated that she and her husband and their two children were at home when the men pounced upon them.
She said that one of her daughters was outside of the house when the men arrived and they held her at knife point threatening to slit her throat if they did not open the door.
The woman also said that they opened the door and the men entered the house and shot her husband multiple times before escaping with all the money they had at home. Sources told this newspaper that when the injured Mc Neil was rushed to the hospital he was still wearing his jewellery including gold chains. Friends and relatives at the scene of the murder were tightlipped last night about Mc Neil and the circumstances surrounding the killing.
On January 31, another gold miner, Dave Wills, was also shot dead after a gunman jumped the gate and fired a volley of shots. Wills was in the living room picking out DVDs to begin watching when the gunman jumped the fence, flung open the door and started firing. Two persons were with him before the incident occurred but they left him mere seconds before the shooting causing law enforcement officers to state that they do not believe that it was by coincidence the two persons left Wills in the area.
Will’s death was also linked to underworld ties. Police sources had said that there is an emerging link between the gold trade and the laundering of proceeds from the narcotics business.
On January 24, another man was killed in what was seen as a hit. Imtiaz Roopnarine, 38, a security official, was gunned down as he was about to leave the Cool Breeze Guest House in West Ruimveldt. While relatives say it was a robbery, police investigators are working on the theory that he was the victim of a `hit’.
Roopnarine was an acquaintance of Wills.
No one has so far been charged over the latter two murders.
Police today issued the following statement:
“The police are investigating an armed robbery that occurred at about 1955h. last night Wednesday February 20, 2013, at New Street, McDoom, EBD, during which gold miner Gavin McNeil, 38 years, was shot and killed.
“Investigations have revealed that Gavin McNeil along with his two teenaged daughters and his mother-in-law June Elwin, 49 years, had just returned home and Gavin McNeil was parking his motor vehicle while the others proceeded to the house. Upon reaching their premises June Elwin and the two teenagers were confronted by a number of men, two of whom were armed with firearms and the others with knives and cutlasses. They were forced to call out to Gavin’s wife Melissa McNeil, 32 years, who opened the door and the men entered the house.
“The armed men took away an undisclosed sum of cash, a quantity of jewellery and a cell phone and escaped out of the building. As they were making their way out of the compound the men shot Gavin McNeil to his neck and shoulder. He was pronounced DOA at the GPHC.
“June Elwin was assaulted about her body with a cutlass and Melissa McNeil received a cut to her face during the robbery. They were treated at the GPHC and sent away.”
