Emotional service precedes burial of Assistant Supt. Murray

Jul 22, 2010 News

The dead officer’s sister is overcome with grief during the rendition of Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’.

– police barred from attending funeral in uniform

Police Assistant Superintendent, Ivelaw Murray, was laid to rest yesterday following a simple yet emotional funeral service at the Glory Light Tabernacle in Plaisance.
The internment took place amidst continuing controversy surrounding how he met his death.
Scores of relatives and friends were present and even a few serving police ranks in civilian clothes also attended.
Murray’s body, clad in a fawn pin-striped suit, lay in a white casket with a bullet wound clearly visible between his eyebrows above the nose.
Mourners were moved by the stirring rendition by Murray’s sister of Bob Marley’s classic, ‘Redemption song’, as she clutched the body in the casket which lay under his parents’ house at Better Hope, East Coast Demerara.
Relatives are insisting that the former Assistant Superintendent was not the victim of a suicide despite the declaration by investigators that he had shot himself twice in the head with his police service revolver, minutes after he allegedly killed constable Kelvin Shepherd in the barrack room of the Springlands Police Station a little over two weeks ago.
Murray was discovered dead in his house minutes after killing Shepherd, still clutching his service revolver.
Police initially concluded that he committed suicide and Police Commissioner Henry Greene intimated that he and shepherd shared an inappropriate relationship.
This angered Murray’s relatives who had already harboured suspicions about the way he died.
For one, they found it difficult to believe that he could have shot himself twice in the head.
A local medical expert had suggested that it was difficult for a man to do so although there have been cases where this was done. Then came a shocking revelation. Forensic experts of the Guyana Police Force reportedly found no trace of gunpowder on the hands of Assistant Superintendent Murray.
The Force’s Crime Scene Unit had swabbed Murray’s hands for traces of gunpowder, based on official reports that he had killed Constable Kevin Shepherd before committing suicide.
A source said that the swabs were taken within the 78-hour period, which would ensure that any gunpowder residue would have been detected.
According to the source, the ranks that found Murray’s remains failed to place his hands in bags to ensure that any gunpowder traces would not have been obliterated.
Nevertheless, the expert stated that there should have been substantial traces of gunpowder on Murray’s hands, given the fact that he allegedly discharged three gunshots on the fateful night.
“It (the residue) is supposed to be heavy, taking into account the number of shots he was supposed to have fired.”
Meanwhile, police ballistic experts have still not been able to match a bullet fragment taken from the dead Constable Shepherd to Murray’s firearm.
Kaieteur News understands that acting on information about the case, Dr. Brijmohan had examined the bodies of both victims for evidence of a homosexual relationship. He reportedly found no such evidence.
Murray’s relatives had contemplated seeking second autopsy but were advised against that move. They had also contemplated moving to the court to have him buried with full honours since they are convinced that he had not taken his own life.