Swift work by members of the Guyana Police Force has led to the arrest of an individual who is being treated as a suspect into the murder of Corentyne businesswoman Su Di Wong.
Di Wong, 44, was killed on Sunday after two bandits reportedly invaded her Number 57 Village, Corentyne, Berbice premises shortly before 8 pm.
Police said in a release that Di Wong, her husband and two sons, were having dinner in their restaurant, Jin Li Lai, which was closed for business at the time when two men, one of whom was armed with a firearm, entered through an open door.
Stabroek News understands that as the family sat down to eat, Di Wong returned to the kitchen where she was attacked and she screamed, alerting her family something was amiss.
Her son, Su Zhuo Xing, 24, told this publication that on checking, he saw two men in the kitchen with his mother. He said the men were armed with a cutlass and a gun and were demanding valuables from his mother. He said his father left him and his 13-year-old brother in the restaurant and went to his mother’s defence.
It was then, Su said, that they heard an explosive noise and rushed to the kitchen where they saw the two men running away, their mother lying on the ground in a pool of blood and their shocked father standing there. According to Su, his father told him that when his mother was shot she made a couple of steps backward before falling to the ground.
Su said he immediately ran outside and sounded an alarm.
He added that the men had picked up a box containing cigarettes and pens before escaping. “We cash out all the money for the day. He come in and maybe saw the box with cigarettes and pens and think money was there. He took the box and gone…,” Su said.
Su added, “Me and my dad lifted my mom to the police vehicle. Then I know she got shot at the face.”
Di Wong succumbed at the Skeldon Public Hospital shortly after being rushed there by the Upper Corentyne Community Policing Group. No one else was physically hurt, but her husband was traumatized and had to be sedated.
Meanwhile, a police source said they made the arrest of the suspect based on the description given to investigators by one of the witnesses.
In 2014 Stabroek News had reported that the family experienced a similar ordeal when bandits descended on them a few nights before Christmas. They were made to hand over an iPad, a quantity of new clothing and cash when the masked and armed men invaded their home aback of the restaurant. The couple said even after they had handed over the said items, the men harassed their children and beat their eldest son as they were not satisfied. “We work hard fuh we money and they come and take it away,” the husband had said.
Harbajan, special assistant attached to the Office of the Prime Minister told Stabroek News that he lives four houses away from where the murder occurred. He expressed sympathy to the family. He said it was a sad event while noting that despite two Community Policing Groups and police responding within minutes, the bandits made a quick escape into the bushes.
He noted that many house lots are not occupied and as a result have become overgrown with weeds; even some of the houses are unoccupied. “These lots need to be cleared. I am appealing to the owners of these properties, here or abroad, to get their lots tidied; thus providing no hiding for these culprits and to provide easy access to police and other authorities,” he said.
