Police have arrested four suspects in relation to the murder of Prettipaul Hargobin, the man who was beaten to death on Wednesday after he opened fired on a group of protestors at Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice.
Contacted for an update last evening, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum confirmed that four suspects are currently in police custody assisting with the investigation.
He said the firearm which Hargobin was relieved of was recovered by the police.
According to Blanhum, checks were ongoing up to yesterday afternoon to determine whether Hargobin was a licenced firearm holder.
Hargobin, 34, of Waterloo, Bath, WCB was rushed to the Fort Wellington Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival just around 4 pm Wednesday.
Enquiries, the police said revealed that Hargobin, was in his motor vehicle on the Public Road at Bath Settlement when it was observed that he exited the vehicle with a shotgun and discharged one round into the air, before discharging three rounds towards a crowd of protestors who were about 60 meters away.
As a result, the police said that Hargobin was attacked by the crowd and beaten. “The police who (were) some distance away having observed the commotion rushed to the scene where they discovered the victim lying on the ground with several injuries about his body,” the statement added.
The dead man sister, Ronita Hargobin previously explained that Hargobin, who was angry at the time, drove to the protest in Bath Settlement after he claimed that someone on a blue motorcycle had done something to him. She said she tried calming him down and kept asking what did the person do to him exactly but he refused to say. “I ask him to tell me what’s wrong, he was crying and so and he went to the protesters and come out ask if anybody pass with a motorcycle,” the woman recalled.
She added that it was at that point that a group of persons began hitting their vehicle. The woman, who said she sustained a lash to her head said she rushed out of the vehicle and held on to her brother in an effort to stop him from getting into a fight with the persons gathered since he quickly got out of the vehicle.
She further added that she was already in the street when she saw her brother turning around so she began running back to the scene. “And I heard shots and a whole set of people run into him and beat him and then light the vehicle on fire,” she said.
Singh then rushed home to collect her car to take her brother to the hospital but before she returned, the police had already arrived on the scene and were getting ready to rush Hargobin to the Fort Wellington Hospital.
Meanwhile, when asked about the allegation that her brother opened fire on the persons gathered, Hargobin said she was unsure as she did not see the shots being fired but only heard them.
