Roger Bumbury, once listed among Guyana’s most wanted fugitives, was executed in his Good Hope Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara home early yesterday morning.
Bumbury, 57, called ‘Don Dick,’ was shot to the head in an attack that was carried out around 12.45 am.
Police, in a statement, said Bumbury was on his veranda of the single-flat house at the time he came under gunfire. It is believed that he retreated into the house during the attack and his killer/s followed him inside and shot him again.
“Investigations revealed that the victim was reportedly sleeping in a hammock in his veranda situated south of his one-flat home,” police explained in the statement. It added that Bumbury’s common-law wife was awakened by several loud explosions and upon investigation saw him lying in a pool of blood in their kitchen.
Bumbury was subsequently pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, where he was rushed.
Three spent shells and a warhead, all belonging to a small-calibre weapon, were retrieved at the scene by investigators, the police added.
Up to press time no arrest had been made but police were working reportedly seeking two suspects.
Abiola Duke, Bumbury’s common-law wife, told Stabroek News that the motive behind the attack was unclear to the family. She, however, noted that her husband and a neighbour, who had made death threats to him, were in court for a wounding case.
“I don’t know if this has anything to do with any old grievances. This boy does always make threats to kill he. I don’t know. I can’t say if that is what happen,” Duke said.
The wife stated that the misunderstanding between her husband and the neighbour stemmed from an issue with her son. “He went over to ask what was the matter with him and my big son but [the neighbour] tell Don Dick not to stand in front his yard and Don Dick tell he that he standing on the road and from then they had argument and a scuffle,” she related.
According to Duke, around 10 on Thursday night, two persons went to the home and called for her husband but he was asleep. Later in the night, she said she woke him to feed their month-old baby and informed him that the men had called for him. Not long after, she explained, “he said he feeling hot and went outside in the hammock.”
Duke said she fell sleep, only to be later awakened by the sound of explosions, which she thought were squibs. However, she added that as the sounds grew louder, she picked up her baby and she told her daughters, who were sleeping on another bed, to stay down.
After the shooting stopped, one of her daughters peeked through the window and saw a man jumping over their fence.
The woman said during the shooting, she called out to her husband but there was no response. “I hear the noise, so I call for he but he ain’t answer. But when I go outside, I see a trail of blood in the house and when I look in the kitchen I see Don Dick fluttering on the floor in a pool of blood,” she.
She said she called out to him but he was unresponsive.
The family believes the gunman entered the yard by jumping the fence and then opened fire on Bumbury, who was sleeping in the hammock. The wife stated that from all indications, Bumbury was hit on the veranda and then ran into the house, where he sought cover. However, the gunman followed.
“It gotta be he come in the house because this morning we found a bullet in the freezer door. I think he was shot at close range,” Duke said.
She related that after finding Bumbury, she immediately called her daughter and son-in-law, who summoned the police and rushed Bumbury to the hospital.
At the home yesterday, Stabroek News was shown the trail of blood that was left behind. A family member stated that due to the active investigation, the house could not be cleaned as yet.
The family member described Bumbury as a quiet individual, who had been a poultry farmer for the last five years.
Duke related that he was working at poultry outlet before they started their own business.
Asked if he ever had any brushes with the law, the family replied in the negative. But police, in their statement, noted that he was “a known character” to investigators.
Bumbury landed on a list of 42 most wanted men for whom wanted bulletins were issued in 2002. He was eventually captured in 2007.
He was wanted for questioning in connection with a series of armed robberies and law enforcers had also fingered him in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of taxi-driver Vivekanand Nandalall in October 2003.
However, after being in police custody for nine days, he was released without any charges being laid against him. Subsequent to his release, he called on the police force to stop harassing him.
Bumbury was said to have served a two-year sentence for breaking and entering and larceny and then turned his life around to earn an honest living.
