A security guard was fatally chopped when he attempted to chase off intruders at the Best Buy Hardware Store at Bladen Hall, East Coast Demerara on Wednesday night.
In a statement, police said Abdool Sattaur Kadir, 53, of 389 9th Street, Foulis, East Coast Demerara, was attacked when he challenged two men who had entered the compound from the back. The men dealt him several chops about his body before they escaped, police added.
After being found at the site, Kadir was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
At the work site yesterday, there was no business activity. Investigators were taking a statement from the owner and were about to review surveillance footage.
While police said the attack occurred around 11.45 pm, Lakhram (only name), owner of the business, said at around 10.30 pm he received a call from a neighbour, who informed him that something was amiss at the site. Lakhram said he immediately informed the police and went to scene. He explained that upon his arrival he noticed the light that would usually be on was out. He then found the wounded Kadir a few feet away from the gate at the back of the building. He said not long after his arrival police on patrol turned up and rushed Kadir to the public hospital in the city.
Lakhram told Stabroek News, that two security guards would usually work the night shift at the site but last night the other guard was off-duty.
At Kadir’s Foulis home, family members and friends gathered and offered their condolences to his family. Preparations for a wake were also being made.
Kadir’s wife, Maureen, sobbed at intervals. Even though she tried to compose herself, while speaking with this newspaper she burst into tears. She said the family learned of the attack via a phone call. She added that when she got to the scene, she saw a pool of blood and asked the whereabouts of her husband. She was told that he was taken to the Georgetown Hospital, where he had succumbed.
Maureen said she left the scene with her son and went to the hospital in disbelief that her husband had died. Hoping what she was told by officers at the scene was untrue, she asked the lawmen at the hospital but was given the heartbreaking news for a second time. “I ask, ‘Where is my husband?’ And they told me, ‘Sorry you are a little too late, he just passed way,’” she recalled.
The woman said she was still in disbelief after she heard the news for a second time. “I went to the nurses, you know, I still wanted to see the body. I begged the nurses and they told me he was badly chopped but I still wanted to see and I begged them. They (nurses) went in and came out back and said he is tied up, I can’t get to see him at the moment and I should come back in the morning (yesterday),” she added.
Maureen said her son and other relatives went yesterday but they were told they had to be accompanied by the police. She said they did so and were then informed to return today.
Kadir, a father of three, worked at the business for the past year.
