Three years after her husband was shot and killed during an armed robbery, a grief-stricken Faye Joseph is calling on witnesses to come forward and for the police to work towards finding those responsible.
“I want the police to do their job. I got confidence in them… if somebody own could solve in six years, me own could solve, is only three years,” Faye recently told Stabroek News at her Gaulding Place, South Ruimveldt home.
“I want justice for my husband and justice for me and my children because a good life gone,” she added as she stressed how difficult it has been for her and her children since Orin was shot dead on April 14, 2014.
The shooting occurred around 11.30 pm.
Based on what had been reported at the time, during a blackout, Orin, who had gone to one of his vehicles parked near his home, was attacked by two men who relieved him of the gold jewellery he was wearing. He was shot during the hold up and the men then fled on a CG motorcycle. He was pronounced dead a short while later at the Georgetown Hospital.
According to Faye, she has since heard “nothing” about her husband’s case.
“I am very much disappointed ’cause it hard because the police ain’t telling me nothing, I ain’t hearing nothing and sometimes you want to go to the police…but then you study if yuh go deh, if yuh day will be wasted. It really, really hard. Every day we speak his name… we remember him,” she said, while wiping away tears.
She added that when her husband’s name is mentioned, she breaks down, particularly at dominoes games. Both she and her late husband are well known for their role in the development of the dominoes games in Guyana. She is currently the president of the Georgetown Dominoes Federation.
The two were married for over 20 years and it was her husband who introduced her to the game.
In recent times, she has not made contact with the police for an update but she recalled that sometime last year, while she was abroad, she was informed that a policeman went to the home saying that there was some “kin’ a development.”
However, she was never able to make contact with the rank and no one at the police station could help her with any information pertaining to the case. To her, it all seemed very strange. “Sometime you say yuh gon follow it up… but sometimes the criminal deh watching yah back and you know in this time, you know how it goes, so sometimes you does be so fearful,” she said.
The woman stated that since the murder, she has become more security conscious, especially when dominoes games are held at her residence. “I does be on the alert,” she stressed.
Robbery
Faye is adamant that it was a robbery that claimed her husband’s life based on the fact that all his gold jewellery was taken and neighbours saw him fighting back. “It was a robbery… a well-timed robbery,” she said.
She recalled that at the time of the shooting she was at the back of the yard. All she heard were gunshots.
According to her, the neighbours saw Orin scuffling with the robbers but they raised no alarm and instead “go down low.”
Asked for a response to people saying that the motive was not robbery, Joseph dismissed such comments. “People talk all kin’ a thing. First of all when a man dead, they does say is he woman. When a woman dead, they seh is de husband but God is the judge. People talk all kin’ a things,” she said, while recalling that after Orin’s death persons tried to say it was political and others drew conclusions that he had an issue with someone. She denied both claims.
“All of these things I does just throw behind my back because God knows the truth. They robbed him. They tek away his big band, rings…they shoot him because he fight back,” she stressed.
According to Faye, Orin was the type of person who would not allow someone to relieve him of his property without a fight. She said that the neighbours not only saw him fighting back but heard him telling the robbers that they did not give him his jewellery.
Days after the killing, the then Crime Chief Seelall Persaud had told this newspaper that police were looking at two lines of inquiry, including that the man was killed during a robbery. He said that a suspect was arrested but was subsequently released. He said that the hunt was on for a second man. There have been no reports of any other arrests in the case.
Police officials have also continuously said that because the shooting occurred during a blackout with no one around, it has been difficult for investigators to pick up leads.
According to Faye, she really thought her husband would have lived because as he was being placed in a car to be transported to the hospital, he spoke. “He said, baby tek off meh boots…pull off he belt because he ain’t getting to breathe properly,” she said.
She added that the men who transported him to the hospital did not allow her to accompany him because they felt that she would not have been strong enough. She insisted that had she been with him she would have questioned him before he reached the hospital. Joseph said that she was told that he spoke a bit but as he neared the hospital he began to slip in and out of consciousness.
“I knew if I was in that car I woulda ask me husband something,” she stressed before questioning why it was necessary for him to be mortally wounded.
Despite the apparent standstill, she still has hope that she will get answers one day.
