“Right now, I’m still shocked. It’s like the emotional part of me blocked off because I was there and I saw everything,” were the words of the grieving girlfriend, as she recounted the ordeal in which her boyfriend, a Mon Repos resident was gunned down while they both were waiting for the traffic lights to change.
Kimal Khan, 42, was shot dead at the traffic lights at Ogle on the East Coast Demerara Highway at around 00.15 hours on Sunday after a night of bar hopping. His 21-year-old girlfriend who was the pillion rider, escaped uninjured.
The young woman told the police that she and Khan had left their Mon Repos home on a black Honda motorcycle, CL5173, around 11 p.m. on Saturday and gone to a nearby bar where they both consumed alcohol. After a while, they decided to move to another entertainment spot in Georgetown.
She said that they were at the traffic lights at Ogle on the motorcycle when a Toyota Allion motorcar pulled up alongside them with three unidentifiable males inside. The men then fired several rounds in their direction and both she and Khan, a father of five, fell to the ground. The car sped away and Khan, who sustained multiple gunshot wounds, never made it to his feet.
When the police later examined Khan’s body, it was determined that he had been shot to the left side of his chest and the right side of his head. A doctor pronounced him dead at the scene where six 9mm spent shells were recovered.
A post-mortem examination later revealed that Khan died of three gunshot wounds; two to the right side of the head and one to the right side of his chest.
Days after the incident occurred, the girlfriend said that she was still in shock, as she was there when it all went down.
“Right now, I’m still shocked. The emotional part of me like it blocked off because I was there, and I saw everything. It still left me with a shock”, she told this newspaper.
When asked to recount what happened that night, the young lady in an interview said that she saw everything, from the minute the car pulled up and gunshots started to ring out, to seeing Khan motionless after.
“I started to hear the gunshots, so I turned my face and the shooting lasted for about 40 seconds after the gunshot stopped, he dropped and I dropped with him because I was holding on to him. Both of us fell to the ground with the bike and everything and the car turned for the line-top and started to speed off, I stood up and I watched at the car and then I went back to him. I see he had a gunshot to his head and the blood kept pitching out from his head and he fell on his face. He lay down on the road and did not say a word, nothing came out of his mouth.”
His girlfriend in tears said that she has lost a companion who was good to her, devoted to the Islamic faith, and would make anyone laugh.
Commander of Regional Division 4 (C), Senior Superintendent Khali Pareshram, yesterday said that thus far no one has been arrested for the murder.
When the girlfriend was asked what she thought would have triggered the incident, she insisted that it might have been out of jealousy coupled with the fact that he was shot back in September.
“He got shot last month. It was a Sunday morning when he left the house he turned and told me to lay down, I am coming back. I’m not taking long. I going and deal with this problem with the boys. I have to get back my bike if I don’t deal with this problem, I can’t get back my bike. He left me and gone; he and his two friends, ‘Shawnie’ and the next guy. I was waiting for him and over an hour passed and I didn’t see him coming back. So, I borrowed a bike from the neighbour and went on the road but I didn’t see him. All day passed and I didn’t see him. It wasn’t till around 2 pm, I heard he got shot in his back. It was till 6 pm I came back, I done went to the station and I done went to the hospital. Is when I came back home, he told me that he got shot in his foot and his friend died”, she added.
It was back in September that a man by the name of ‘Shawnie’ was shot dead in Mon Repos, however, there is no clear indication from the authorities that the two incidents are related.
