| For the past year or so,Nino Niederreiter Jersey, 27-year-old farmer Omadat Persaud waited patiently for his turn to migrate to the United States of America; but in the blink of an eye a bullet to the centre of his forehead snuffled out his life leaving his mother dumbstruck.Chan Persaud called ‘Aunty Chan’ had returned to Guyana to be with her son until he migrated, but instead she watched helplessly as a gunman pointed a gun at his head and pulled the trigger during a brutal robbery at their Supply, Mahaica home on Monday night.Like most mothers, ‘Aunty Chan’ did not immediately accept the fact that her only son had succumbed; she thought that he was hospitalized, so she even prepared breakfast and was sending it to the hospital for him yesterday morning. It was only then that she was told that Omadat had passed away hours earlier.Yesterday the distraught mother tried through sobs and tears to recall the events that led to her tragic state. She told this newspaper that it was around 19:30 hours; she was upstairs in her two-flat house, while her daughter and son in law, Yogendra Naipaul and his wife Omadai , and their two children who had recently returned to Guyana on holiday, along with son Omadat were in the yard, when the bandits barged in.Two of the assailants were carrying guns and they quickly confronted their terrified victims.“I was upstairs and when I peep I see the guy in front of me son,” she said.According to ‘Aunty Chan’, her son froze and stared at the gunman who apparently thought that he had recognized him.Kaieteur News was told that Omadat Persaud knelt on the floor with his hands in the air and begged the gunman to spare his life. It was at this moment that the bandit, who had a black cloth covering a part of his face, cold-bloodedly squeezed the trigger.The elderly woman said that after witnessing that she ran to the front room of her house and began screaming in a desperate attempt to alert the neighbours.“I see he (killer) but he nah see me, so I had de chance to run at de end room and holler fuh me neighbour,Mikael Granlund Jersey, ‘call people, call people thief man deh in de house, dem gat me son ah bottom deh’,” she recounted.This however did not deter the bandits, who proceeded to herd the rest of the family together in the house, demanding cash and other valuables.“Me son had a cutlass, dem pull out dat and lash me grandson. He’s only 13 years. Dem carry me daughter upstairs and seh dat dem want money, and she give dem. She say,Scott Hartnell Jersey, ‘Ow, me ah give alyuh, but alyuh nah kill nobody’, but dem still kill she brother,” Aunty Chan said.The woman said that after the bandits left she went downstairs to her badly wounded son and cradled him in her arms, willing him to stay alive.“He open he mouth fuh talk and is suh de blood coming out ah he mouth,Paul Stastny Jersey,” she added.During the ordeal,Al Macinnis Jersey, the bandits also duct-taped the face of her granddaughter, to keep her from screaming. They also dealt Yogenrdra Naipaul a blow to his head with a gun.The armed men took away a quantity of jewellery and an undisclosed sum of US currency and escaped.“In twelve minutes dem finish do everything; kill me son and gone,” Mrs. Persaud lamented.A neighbour told this newspaper that she heard the screaming, but there was nothing that she or her husband could do.“When we hear de hollering, me peep out de window. I hear dem calling me husband, but den we hear gunshots,” the neighbour said. She stated that the bandits must have fled through the back of the Persaud’s yard since she did not see them leave through the front.Other residents recalled hearing the gunshots from relatively long distances away.“Awe hear bullet and hollering, but awe nah know was wha…is when everything done, den people come and see was wha,” another neighbour stated.Residents are convinced that the perpetrators are from the Mahaica area,Brian Elliott Jersey, since they seem to be targeting overseas visitors and they appeared to know the Persauds’ yard well.“How dem know fuh run through de back whey gat nuff bush?” one resident asked.They were not too complimentary of the police, claiming that ranks are often too slow to respond to reports of crime in the community.One resident told this newspaper that on most occasions the Mahaica Police Station is seriously understaffed.“In de nights is only one or two police does deh in deh. Dey use to gat patrol,Colton Parayko Team North America Jersey, now dem hardly gat police. Is only when people play loud music,Bryan Bickell Jersey, and beat up dem wife, de police coming quick,Kris Versteeg Jersey,” a Mahaica resident declared.Police said that they are questioning four suspects as they continue their probe into the farmer’s murder. |
