A 36-year-old suspect in the murder of well-known Guyhoc Park mechanic Reginald Atherly was shot during efforts to arrest him on Sunday evening.
Marlon Badley, called ‘Maley,’ of East La Penitence, Georgetown and Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara, was shot once in his leg.
He was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where he was treated, and he is presently in police custody.
Police spokesman Jairam Ramlakhan yesterday confirmed the shooting, which occurred around 9 pm on Sunday.
The police, in a statement, said Badley was walking on Cornhill Street towards a Route 31 minibus when a party of policemen, who were on patrol duty at Stabroek Market Square in force vehicle PWW 5418, noticed him.
Two ranks, a police constable and a detective corporal, approached Badley in a bid to arrest him and he allegedly whipped out a firearm from his pants crotch and pointed it in the direction of the constable.
As a result, the constable drew his service pistol and discharged a round, which struck Badley in his leg.
The police say they subsequently found a .32 Taurus pistol with magazine and eight live .32 rounds of ammunition in his possession.
Atherly, known as ‘Reggie’ and ‘Diesel Boss’, 44, was shot and killed around 4 am on July 27th during a scuffle with two gunmen, who invaded his Lot G26 Guyhoc Park home, in what appeared to be a hit.
He sustained several gunshot wounds about his body, including to his abdomen, and was pronounced dead on arrival at the GPH.
Atherly and his family were asleep when the gunmen invaded their home.
He confronted the men and was shot as a result. The men escaped, empty-handed.
It is suspected that the gunmen gained entry into the house by retrieving keys through a window situated on the western side of the house. They did not demand any cash or jewellery from the family.
The dead man’s wife, Roxanne Crawford, had explained to this newspaper that she and Atherly were asleep on their bed, while their nine-year-old daughter was on another bed in the room. She awakened to find a gun being pointed at her.
Crawford said she screamed in a bid to alert neighbours.
She noted that her scream also woke Atherly. “So he (Atherly) fly up and he run with he hand open and when I scream they (the gunmen) end up running and he run behind them, ducking suh, running, coming and shots start fire,” the woman had said.
Crawford added that she grabbed her daughter from her bed and told her “Bandits! Go under the bed!”
“…And by time I hear the shots stop fire, I see he (Atherly) got one ah them. He lay down behind the door, chack the door and he gah one ah them (gunman) by the door. I don’t know if is he hand, he foot or wah he gah but he had one ah them squeezing them suh and he lay down flat pun the ground,” she further explained. Crawford said she ran for a cutlass from under the bed for Atherly. “…Whilst grabbing the cutlass now, I realised I ain’t see he (Atherly) moving and the man gone out he hand… he just deh on the ground. So I drop the cutlass and I go to he and I shake he like and I run back and I seh ‘Angel, daddy like he get shoot,’” Crawford recounted.
Several persons have been questioned in relation to the crime.
