The wife of popular auto dealer Deokarran ‘Ram’ Sanasie was shot dead last night in front of her daughter at their Atlantic Gardens, East Coast Demerara home, in what appeared to be a hit.
Patricia Sanasie, 45, was shot point-blank, four times to her upper body around 7.30 pm yesterday while she was opening the gate to her home at Lot 129 Atlantic Gardens.
The shooting comes almost a year after her husband, Ram’s Auto Spares and Ram’s Variety Store Owner Deokarran Sanasie, accused her of being behind an attempted hit on him.
According to a neighbour, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Patricia Sanasie and her daughter had just exited a vehicle when a silver-grey Toyota Raum pulled up in front of them. A stubby man in all-black attire with a mask emerged and pulled out a gun and pointed it to Sanasie and started shooting.
The man then jumped into the vehicle and drove away. Sanasie’s daughter was left standing there, screaming, “Why y’all didn’t take me? Why y’all take my mother?”
At that time, neighbours started to run out of their homes and rushed to the shot woman’s aid. However, she was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital. She was shot to her stomach, chest and neck.
A neighbour who rushed Sanasie to the hospital said the shooting was not a shock to her because Sanasie’s life was threatened several times in the past. She said Sanasie had told her someone had threatened to kill her and people had advised her to leave her Atlantic Gardens house. She said Sanasie had told her that she was “setting things up” with her property in Eccles, East Bank Demerara, and soon she would leave the house.
“My body trembling as I stand here… the child ask not to say anything to the media… It happen like bam, bam, four time and that was it. It didn’t even take 10 second… all I remember is I open my door and I see neighbours running from all over and the screaming started,” she recalled.
The woman claimed that her life also was threatened and she was fearful about saying anything. “…I will be the next victim… if I say anything, he will come after me. He said it like a million time,” she said, rubbing her nightdress with her bloodstained hands.
She said the last time she spoke to Sanasie was on Friday and the woman was very open about the threats on her life. “She was afraid for her life all the time,” the neighbour added.
On February 12, last year, Deokarran Sanasie was shot several times about his body while drinking in the vicinity of his auto sales business at Fourth and Light streets, Alberttown. He was rushed to a private city hospital, where he was treated for gunshot wounds to his left thigh and abdomen. He had expressed concerns for his safety and went into hiding.
During that time, his wife and her brother were held in connection with the shooting. However, Patricia Sanasie had denied having any involvement in the attempted hit on her husband, who had accused her of plotting to kill him.
“I am innocent and I knows nothing about what is going on, absolutely nothing,” she had said in a public statement when she was released from police custody.
“The killers are out there and my husband should focus out there on what is going on. I think he needs to go to the doctor and check himself out. He is mentally sick. He holding innocent people for this crime. I am his wife and I have lived with him for 29 years. Everything that he state in the papers are lies and I have proof. I have a lot of proof,” she had added.
