Security guard stabbed, strangled at Sophia school

Jul 26, 2010 News

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By Latoya Giles

A 58-year-old security guard was stabbed over ten times and then strangled with his own belt, early Sunday morning at the Mercy Wings Special School, Sophia.
Carl Nelson Bollers, of Lot 234 Block X A Field Sophia, was found lying face down in a pool of blood about 15 feet away from the guard hut.
He had been stabbed in the stomach, head and on the arms.

Bollers was still alive when his wife arrived on the scene, but succumbed shortly after.
Robbery did not appear to be the motive since, according to school officials, nothing was stolen.
Detectives reportedly recovered a blood stained belt, which belonged to the victim.
Eileen Exley, the dead man’s distraught wife wept uncontrollably yesterday morning as she showed the school officials where she found her dying husband lying, after a friend of the slain man summoned her to the scene.
Ms. Exley told Kaieteur News that she received a frantic call from a friend of her husband, who urged her to check at the school.
The friend had allegedly gone to the school to ask Bollers to do a favour for him.
“I get a call about one o’clock (yesterday) from meh husband friend…..he seh ‘girl something happen to Carlos; check de school’”.
Exley said she asked the man if he was joking, since she really could not comprehend why her husband didn’t make the call himself.
“I ask he if he mekking jokes because is too late to wake me up telling me nonsense.”
But she dressed and made her way to the school. The first thing she noticed was her husband’s sweater lying on the floor.
“Since I see meh husband sweater on de ground I know something wrong….cause he does always got on that sweater whenever he guarding night times,” Exley explained.
She explained that it was her husband’s friend who trained a light to the spot where her husband was lying.
“Oh God…after I see he lying there I start shouting……but nobody ain’t come,” she sobbed.
The school gate was heavily padlocked, so she was forced to clamber over the fence.
The woman explained that her husband was still alive, because he was groaning.
“All de time he deh groaning and he seh ‘oh gosh babes they brutal meh.’”
Exley said she tried her best to break the padlock, to get her husband out of the compound, but to no avail.
“I even try lifting Carlos…. But oh god was me alone….nobody ain’t come cause they (the residents) seh is police evidence”.
After about 30 minutes the groaning subsided.

Police ranks eventually arrived at the scene and hoisted the man over the school fence.
He was rushed to the Georgetown Hospital, but by that time he had already died and doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
The dead man’s wife described the attack as very brutal and said that killers might escape from man, but that God would deal with them.
“My husband ain’t deserve to die like this……they butchered my husband,” she lamented.
She said that her husband had been working at the school for the past 10 years, and was recently rewarded for his long service.
According to the woman, a neighbour who lives close to the school told her that they saw six men jumped the school fence.
She said that about an hour later the men jumped back over the fence and walked away from the school.
However, according to the neighbour four of the men, turned back and went back to the school. “They had to forget something mek them turn back so” opined Exley. The woman further suggested that her husband might have been killed because he was a very straight forward and no-nonsense person.
“My husband loved his job….and I think is he work they killed him for.”
Exley said that she had a very troubling dream about two weeks ago, and had warned her spouse to be very careful.
According to the woman, she dreamt that her husband was being pushed into a hole by another co-worker.
Meanwhile, the woman lamented that she lacked the financial resources to bury her husband.
Exley said that herself, daughter and husband lived in a small two bedroom house and were eking out a living.
The couple has a 13-year-old daughter Nekita, who is a first former.
She said she hopes that her husband’s employers bear some financial reasonability for his funeral, since he died while he was on duty.
Meanwhile, up to press time police had made no arrests, but were following up on the theory that Bollers might have known his attackers.
One police source opined that Bollers’ killers went to the extreme to make sure that he was dead.
“Why would any thief do all that? He had to have known his killers and they didn’t want to leave him alive.”

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Nineteen security guards Killed on duty in nine years

A security guard leaving for work never knows if he or she will live to see their loved ones.
At least that’s been the case in Guyana, where some 19 guards, including two females, have been slain while on duty within the past nine years.
Several were mercilessly gunned down during the 2002-2008 ‘crime wave’.
Others were slain by burglars, while one female guard was stabbed on her worksite by a jealous former lover.
On May 16, 2002, gunmen killed security guard Chaitram Etwaru during a brazen daylight robbery at Jairam’s General Store in Saffon Street, Charlestown.

On July 9, 2002, bandits opened fire on a delivery van belonging to Edward B. Beharry and Company, killing security guard Carlyle Wickham at Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara.
August 22, 2002: Three armed men gunned down Professional Guard Service security guard Michael Cumberbatch, who was on duty at Bhagan’s Drug Store at Camp and Middle streets, Georgetown.
After shooting Cumberbatch in the chest, the killers fled with his firearm.
December 5, 2004, Noel Jones, a 73-year-old security guard, was on duty at the Original Dairy Bar in Croal Street, Georgetown, when three armed bandits stormed the fast food establishment.
After grabbing $132,000, the robbers forced Jones into a washroom where they shot him dead.
The sole accused in the case was recently freed.
February 26, 2006: In a one-hour assault which claimed eight lives at Eccles and Agricola, East Bank Demerara, gunmen killed MMC security guards Sheldon Smartt, Cedric Dummett and Loris Semple at the Two Brothers Gas Station.
In April, 22, 2006, heavily armed men, reportedly dressed in battle gear, slaughtered security guard Curtis Robertson, while invading the LBI home of former Minister of Agriculture Satydeow Sawh.
In the ensuing onslaught, Sawh, his sister-in-law Phulmatie Persaud, and two of Sawh’s siblings were also slain.
On October 1, 2007, MMC security guards Rodwell Clarke, 41, and Warren Hutson, were killed when eight gunmen ambushed the company vehicle which was transporting a payroll at Sheribana Bridge in the Essequibo.

On February 17, 2008, security guard Irving Ferreira was shot dead at Bartica. He was one of 13 people that were slaughtered when a small army of gunmen stormed the mining community.
On November 1, 2008, security guard Patricia Rose was on duty at the Georgetown School of Nursing in East Street, when a man, identified as Rose’s former lover, scaled the fence, cornered her in a guard hut, and stabbed her several times.
She died six months later. The suspect, identified as 62-year-old Hubert George, was captured shortly after and charged.
In May, 2009, burglars invaded the Uncle Eddie’s Home in Tucville.
They tied, beat and strangled 43-year-old RK Security Service guard Simone Coleridge, before fleeing with a few items.
In May, 2010, 47-year-old security guard Arjune Gobin was shot dead by heavily armed bandits at Wellington Park, Corentyne.
May, 2010, 65-year-old security guard John Evans was found in the Supervisors’ Club at 296 Determa Street, Linden.
He had been on the job for just a few weeks.
July, 2010: Forty-four-year-old security guard Rodwell Cato, called ‘Pepper’, was bound and strangled by thieves while on duty at a housing development site at Section C Enterprise, East Coast Demerara.
The thieves escaped with six heavy duty batteries.

Two other security guards were also found murdered some three years ago while working at the Ogle Aerodrome.

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