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Unsettling memories rekindled by Charlestown killings

Oct 27, 2010 News

Yesterday’s events at Russell and Howes Street in Georgetown that left two dead and two others injured brought back unsettling memories of similar mass killings.
On a rainy day on May 29, 1980, 32-year-old Devakaparsaud Haripaul, lured his family members into his home at Lot 118 Sharp Street, Leonora, West Coast Demerara, and slaughtered them one by one with an axe. By the time he was finished, his wife, Mrs. Radjai Haripaul, and five of the couple’s six children were dead. The sixth child, 13-year-old Isardi Haripaul, arrived home after the slaughter. Her father tried to drag her into the house but she fled and alerted the police.
Police finally arrived and located the five victims. By then, Devakaparsaud Haripaul had hanged himself from a beam in the house.
Investigations revealed that the killings were triggered by a prolonged domestic dispute.
On December 9, 1994, in Friendship, East Coast of Demerara, deranged drug addict Hubert Headley ‘Baby Arthur’ butchered his 59-year-old mother Hyacinth Arthur, Dennis Joseph, called ‘Bunny’, Maude Hutton, Shawn Sullivan, Melissa Valentine, and two-year-old Semple. A dog was also slaughtered.
Headley was shot dead by police.
Villagers later revealed that the 31-year-old mass murderer was a cocaine addict who had had a history of threatening his mother and other villagers.
Also in 1994, 34-year-old Imtiaz Rahaman shot his two children, his 32-year-old wife and then himself after a long-standing domestic dispute.
Domestic trouble was also given as the reason why in October 1997, Ramodar Sudama of Blankenburg, West Coast Demerara shot four people, killing one, the 19-year-old brother of his wife. He reportedly went berserk when his wife left him and returned to her mother’s home. Sudama was an abuser.
In 1997, Calvin Knights murdered his wife Michelle, before killing himself. Domestic conflict was again blamed for this tragedy.
In February 1998, Number 65 Village, Corentyne was rocked by the deaths of three children reportedly at the hands of their father, who was found hanging in the house.
Again domestic conflict was blamed for the deaths of the children aged nine, eight and three years old. The two older children were reportedly strangled, while the youngest was stabbed.
On July 7, 1999, a prolonged family feud eventually came to a bloody end at Lot121 Sideline Dam Buxton.
Raul Herod, a 36-year-old operations supervisor at Securicor security company, shot his 97-year-old grandmother, Angela Herod, his mother, Shirley Cole-Herod, 60; aunt Patricia Harris 58; niece, Jonelle Herod, nephew, Orin Herod, daughter, Adele Herod, and son, Rodel Herod.
After informing some villagers of his deed, Raul Herod then re-entered his house, set the building alight, and then shot himself dead.
Jermaine Herod was the only person who was at home at the time to survive the tragedy.
The neighbours to whom he ran said that Jermaine told them that his father had shot him and was shooting everybody in the home. They hid him under their bed.

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