September 9 has been set as the date for report and fixture of the commencement of the Preliminary Inquiry (PI) into the murder of Adiola Eddie-Barker during the fatal “game bird” shooting last year, in which Mark Assing was charged with the capital offence.
The announcement was made yesterday by Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
On his last appearance before the Chief Magistrate on July 5, Assing, called ‘Jesse’ was remanded to prison for the June 20, 2012 charge after it was read to him. Assing, then 42, whose last address was given as Lot 41 Sussex Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, was accused of fatally shooting the woman last year after she intervened in a row he had with her son over a game bird.
On June 20, 2012, Eddie-Barker, her son, Martin Barker, 21, and a cousin, Lesha George, 33, were shot during an argument with a neighbour, who had accused Barker of stealing his bird.
Eddie-Barker succumbed on July 2, 2012 at the Georgetown Public Hospital, where she had been admitted since the incident in a vegetative state and hooked up to a life support machine.
Eyewitnesses had told Stabroek News that the incident stemmed from an argument over a game bird that Martin Barker was holding as he was returning home.
His neighbour, Assing, they said, came out of his yard and accused the young man of stealing his bird.
They said Barker, who rears birds for cockfighting, vehemently denied that the bird was his neighbour’s and even attempted to show him features on the bird substantiating his ownership.
The man flew into a rage, dashed into his home and returned with a gun and a knife. Prompted by his wife to shoot Barker, Assing opened fire, hitting the three persons.
He then fled the scene but was seen by members of the dead woman’s family in the Albouystown area sometime after.
