Police are being accused of ignoring the initial reports from a 12-year-old that her father had assaulted her mother and was threatening to kill her entire family on Friday night, just a short while before the man kept his word and set their home on fire at Port Kaituma.
Port Kaituma businessman Linus La Cruz, 50, locked the grille barricades on his Main Road Port Kaituma home and set it ablaze, with his wife and four children inside.
The charred bodies of housewife Lurlene La Cruz, 39, and her children Lea La Cruz, 14, Labron La Cruz, 8, Lavette La Cruz, 3, and Levon La Cruz, 1, were later removed by police from the smoldering debris. Linus La Cruz, who sustained burns to his body, is currently under police guard at the Port Kaituma Hospital.
A fifth child’s life was spared as she had fled the home to notify police at the station, a short distance away, of her father’s erratic behaviour and the threats to her mother and siblings.
In a press release, the police said that ranks responded to the report made by the 12-year-old-girl at the Port Kaituma Station that her father and mother were involved in an argument and he had threatened to burn down their house at Main Road, Port Kaituma.
However, residents believe if police had responded to the child’s initial reports, the lives of the mother and her four other children could have been saved.
“Police chase the child back home to call her father… she came holding on, screaming, saying that her father going to kill her mother. So, I tried to calm her tell her we going to go to the station but the child in tears telling me she went there already and they send her away to call her father,” a resident, who later accompanied the child to the station, told Stabroek News.
The “callous uncaring act” has residents of Port Kaituma calling for an investigation into the incident.
“This place is calling for a total investigation of the police. The police didn’t act. They are responsible here… most of the time when you call them nothing. Look they chase this child tell her to go and sleep and must tell her father to come? What is that?” an angry Richard Allen, former regional parliamentarian, said.
Esther La Cruz, the sister of alleged arsonist, also called for an investigation yesterday. “You don’t win with the police. You don’t. And we know that but we want an investigation. You know it is only when death comes the police is apply,” the woman said.
She was the owner of the destroyed home and she was still in shock at her brother’s actions.
Police, in their release, yesterday reported that it was while travelling to the La Cruz home in response to the report made by the child that they observed that the building was on fire. Suspecting that persons were inside, ranks attempted to enter the building, but were prevented from doing so by a locked grille door.
“The police ranks and nearby residents formed a bucket brigade but were unable to extinguish the blaze,” police said.
‘Crazy, crazy, crazy’
Fire Chief Marlon Gentle told Stabroek News that from reports he received, Linus La Cruz was drunk as he had been drinking liquor on Friday afternoon.
“This man showed signs of this [being drunk] and reports we got said that he was drinking that afternoon. I understand one of his daughters went to report his threats but during this time this man locked in the rest of the family and used gasoline to set the fire… the community and our trained volunteers tried to get it but it was barricaded tightly by grilles,” Gentle explained.
He informed that a team from the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) along with police investigators will leave today for the area to undertake further investigations.
A relative of La Cruz told Stabroek News that he was an introvert who stuck to the confines of his home and business and seldom ever drank alcohol.
However the relative pointed out that on the occasions when the man did drink, he would act paranoid and his behaviour became erratic. “He never used to smoke and would drink only one, one time. But you see, when he tek he liquor he get crazy, crazy, crazy… he would start fuh cuss up and get on bad but when that liquor come out he system you want know weh de mad man gone,” the relative said.
La Cruz’s brother-in-law, Troy Garraway, recalled that La Cruz was “liming and drinking” on Friday afternoon at an area a short distance from where he lived. He said that the man’s children played in their yard while he kept watch over them. It is unclear what time he left the other residents and retired home.
A close relative of Lurlene La Cruz said that the man kept his family alienated from the community and that while they lived a short distance from each other, she and her relative hardly communicated.
She pointed out that Linus La Cruz, a former teacher, had prior mental health problems but was never openly abusive to his wife or children. “He would take the children to school, collect them, take them out weekends and so. He had a mental breakdown a long time ago and sometimes is act like crazy, crazy but nothing to make anyone think he would do this. We whole family in shock,” she said.
She was in her home when she heard screams and when she ran outside Lurlene’s home was on fire and residents were screaming that the children were inside. She scurried to the scene and began assisting with the bucket brigade but she said that from her knowledge of the grills on the home, she knew it was a futile job. She believes that her relative was either unconscious or already dead when the home was torched or she would have heard her screams or received a phone call. She will have to wait until Tuesday to know definitely as an autopsy will be performed then.
Fortress
Residents yesterday lamented that indeed the La Cruz’s home was a grilled fortress as the man had placed much emphasis on security because of his business. They said that in the lower flat of the building, La Cruz ran a lucrative business selling mining equipment.
“The house was wood but all over has thick grill. Everything has grill; the windows, door, the shop, everywhere. There was no way we could have gotten in with all we tried,” Guyana Fire Service (GFS) volunteer Godwyn Fordyce told this newspaper.
He explained that he and a group of other men from the village were trained as firefighters a few months ago by the GFS, which prepared them to respond if there were a fire in the village.
He said that they were also given equipment but because of the area’s terrain, this was of no use on Saturday evening. “We have an engine on a tractor but [it] cannot really be used inland. It has three suctions and only about 18 feet leverage,” he explained.
Further, he said that the main source of water is the Port Kaituma River and that while that was a very long distance away, setting up mining pumps and hoses required time, which is of the essence during a fire.
However, while residents were unable to save the wooden home or the lives of those trapped inside, they were able to contain the blaze, saving homes nearby which included a shop that sold both cooking gas and other combustible goods.
The Fire Chief commended the works of the volunteers and residents. “They did excellent using what they had because a lot of people don’t understand the geographical nature of these places… this is a rural setting and from what I see they did a darn good job,” Gentle said.
He added that from assessments made by his men during the planned visit, the GFS will determine what can be done to boost the fire fighting capacity of the Port Kaituma firefighters. “We will have to see what is needed because one might say give a fire engine but because of the terrain that might not be the most practical thing,” he noted. “Further assessment will tell is more but what we know is that this area is growing. It is booming because of mining and we have to look at a lot of things’ regularisation, how they construct and so forth,” he added.
