Campbellvile Shooting… Dead Youth Was Main Target

May 16, 2008 News

-Cops

Investigators are still baffled over last Wednesday night’s shooting in Campbellville that claimed the life of 21-year-old Arjune Narine Singh, and resulted in injuries to three other persons.

The injured were Larry Goorsahai, 49 years of Station Street, Kitty; Mark Semple, 24; and his mother Jean Singh, 62 years, a librarian attached to the National Communications Network and of Seaforth Street, Campbellville.

They were in two other cars and sustained gunshot injuries. They were treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital and sent away.

While speculation is rife, investigators have almost ruled out that the attack was directed at the police who were at the scene at the time of the shooting.

According to an eyewitness, the gunmen’s car appeared to be following Narine’s vehicle along Durey Lane when they first opened fire.

The eyewitness said that apparently, Narine, upon seeing the flashing lights of the police on Middleton Street, decided to turn towards the cops for help. However, the eyewitness said that the gunmen did not back off.

Instead, one of the gunmen got out of their car and opened fire with what appeared to be a machine gun.
“The police had to take evasive action and the man (gunman) just jump back in he car and drive away,” he said.

Investigators are exploring the theory that the attack may be linked to a similar attack last week in which a Campbellville butcher, Imran Khan, was shot at by men in a dark-coloured car while he was driving along Irving Street.

The police had initially believed that the shooting was a case of mistaken identity.
A relative of the dead man, who declined to give any information until the arrival of his parents from overseas, indicated that the car that Narine was driving belonged to the family, which almost ruled out the mistaken identity theory.

Investigators are also looking at Narine’s connection as a flight consultant to a recently grounded airline, which operated between Guyana and New York and Canada.

At around 21:30 hours gunmen opened fire on several cars, including a police patrol vehicle with two unarmed ranks, on Middleton Street.

Police in a press release stated that police ranks had stopped the driver of a motor car along Middleton Street after it was observed that the headlights of the vehicle were defective.
Motor car PGG 3465 driven by Mark Semple, with his mother, Jean Singh, in the passenger seat and which was proceeding in the opposite direction was also stopped by the police.
This resulted in Arjune Narine, who was driving motor car PGG 8089 and Larry Goorsahai in motor car PFF 7586 having to stop as they were traveling behind.
While the police were carrying out their investigations, armed men who were on Durey Lane opened fire killing Arjune Narine and injuring Mark Semple, who was hit on his right hand; Larry Goorsahai, who was hit in his back on the right side; and Jean Singh in her right upper back. The bullets had passed through Narine’s car and injured the others.
The release said that mobile police patrols responded quickly to the report received but the armed men managed to escape.
According to another eyewitness, he and his brother-in-law, Larry Goorsahai, one of three injured in the shooting, were heading home in a motorcar and were in the vicinity of Lamaha and Station Streets when they observed a set of cars, including a police car, in the roadway.
Unaware that anything was amiss, the man said that they attempted to pass the cars but were blocked by a taxi, which was in their path.

The man said that the taxi driver responded to their attempts to pass by asking them, “What wrong with y’all? Y’all want I loose meh dog on you?”

The eyewitness added that he and his relative laughed at the comment by the taxi driver and responded that their dog was at home.

It was soon after navigating past the taxi and the police vehicle, the man said, that they were startled by sounds they recognised as gunshots.

“We ain’t see where it come from or how it coming; all we know is that it came from the back of us.”
The man added that he and his brother-in-law tried to conceal themselves in their car but apparently a bullet hit the brother-in-law on one of his feet.

“Me brother-in-law shout out he get hit in his foot and I say hold on, don’t get up, because we could feel bullets flying all over we head. I seh to myself that I gon get hit too and so I say stay down Larry, and he shout out again that he get hit in he back. I say man stay down still and he tried to lie down…”
A short while later, the man said that the rain of bullets ceased at which point a policeman approached their vehicle and urged them to open their vehicle; then he cautioned them to drive as soon as he told them to.
“The policeman say hold on driver open yuh back door…He jump in we car and we drive down Garnett Street where the disco deh and the police tell we to stop.”

The man said that the policeman then requested to drive the car, a call which Larry rejected. “‘I am not going with you nowhere; I going to the hospital’…and the policeman say ‘alright’ and drove away with our car and went to the Kitty Police Station.”

The policeman had already taken over the wheel.

Police stated that twenty one .556 and eleven 7.62 x 39 spent shells were recovered at the scene by the police.