Murder rate at an alarming high

Aug 03, 2008 News

— 109 murders in seven months

Crime Chief Seelall Persaud says that Guyana’s murder rate is significantly higher than last year’s.

There have been 109 homicides so far for this year, including three massacres and the beheading of a popular businessman.

Murder statistics for 2007 showed that the murder rate was the lowest in six years. Some 113 people were murdered in 2007, in contrast to 150 homicides in 2006; 120 in 2005; 131 in 2004; 206 in 2003; and 142 in 2002, the year of the infamous jailbreak.

However, statistics gathered between January and March alone of this year showed that there were 51 murders, with 27 being execution-style killings.

This year’s spate of murders began when a gang of marauding gunmen created havoc in the East Coast Demerara village of Lusignan, killing 11 persons, including five children, in one of the deadliest attacks in recent years.

This was followed by another wanton attack by a barrage of gunmen, this time in the mining community of Bartica, where 12 people, including three police ranks, were slaughtered.

Driving more fear into the nation was a third massacre which occurred at a mining camp at Lindo Creek, Upper Berbice River. Eight persons lost their lives in that attack.

The year 2008 thus far has also seen its share of unsolved murders, with one of the most intriguing cases being that of Jiffi Lubes’ boss Farouk Kalamadeen.

Kalamadeen had gone missing and feared kidnapped in April. The worst fears of many were realised when his headless body was discovered in Kingston.

The gruesome mystery was further deepened when his head was found a few days later in a canal one block away from his business place at North Road and Light Street.

There were other execution-style killings, including that of George Barton, called ‘Berlin’, who was gunned down on Holy Thursday in Laing Avenue.

On March 10, Marcyn King, a sister of notorious fugitive Rondell Rawlins, called ‘Fine Man,’ was gunned down by an unidentified man in a white car at D’Andrade and Republic Streets, Newtown.

King, 34, of Lot 128 D’Andrade Street, Newtown, was shot twice in the chest shortly after exiting a minibus about 100 yards from her home.

There was also the execution of 22-year-old Arjune Narine, who was shot dead in Durey Lane, Campbellville.

That murder is also unsolved. There were crimes of passion. Bibi Shaneeza Khan was victim of one such crime.

She allegedly had her throat slit by her reputed husband at Grass Field, Enmore. Her killer subsequently hanged himself.

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Murder rate at an alarming high

— 109 murders in seven months

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