Police baffled by recent murders

May 07, 2012 News

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The month of May 2012 is only six days old and the police murder statistics are threatening to hitch a ride on the runaway train.
Already, three brazen murders are engaging their attention and if one were to follow the trend from last month, they seem certainly headed for the cold case file.
Within recent times, the police have been issuing periodic crime figures which show a downward trend in murders overall, but the way things are

going at the moment, the curve could go in the opposite direction.
And to make matters worse, most of the recent murders remain unsolved and investigators appear to have lost their way.
For instance, five of the recent murders were execution style, and while police have carried out background checks on some of the victims and found them to be of dubious characters, investigators have not been able to come up with clear motives.
Take the case of 37-year-old Leonard Mahadeo of Diamond, New Housing Scheme who was gunned down on March 16 in a bar at Eccles, East Bank Demerara.
While investigators are aware that Mahadeo, a prominent businessman, was a significant player in the local drug underworld, they remain baffled as to who killed him and why.
Mahadeo had survived a similar attempt on his life five years ago.
Mahadeo, formerly of Soesdyke Back Road, East Bank Demerara (EDB) was gunned down execution style while imbibing at the Soca Paradise Sports Bar located at Old Road Eccles, East Bank Demerara.
And investigators will be hard pressed to solve the drive by murder of an Albouystown resident with a lengthy criminal record
Aman Lalchand, 31 was gunned down around 19:00 hrs on Friday in Sussex Street by the occupants of a white car. He was the second man to be executed in the community within the past four days.
An eyewitness said that Lalchand, 31, also known as, Randy, of Howes Street, Albouystown, was shot in the chest while smoking a marijuana ‘joint’.

Close associates of the slain man said that Lalchand was targeted for execution by an individual who reportedly collected a $1M down-payment to carry out the hit. The associates said that Lalchand, who has three small children, had been warned that he was being targeted, and was even told the name of the gunman who had been paid to kill him.
Aman Lalchand had had several brushes with the law. He was charged, but acquitted, for the 2008 execution-style murder of George Barton, called ‘Georgie Berlin.’
Barton was riddled with bullets by gunmen in a car while walking in Laing Avenue with his teenage daughter. The daughter was shot in the knees and buttocks. The young woman never testified in court during either preliminary inquiry, citing fear for her safety.
Lalchand’s execution came just four days after the still unsolved killing of Albouystown taxi driver Renie Williams, who was gunned down in King Edward Street.
Williams, a 25-year-old ex-policeman, was shot twice in the back by a lone, black-clothed man armed with a 9mm pistol as he sat in his car outside his home with his wife.
Williams and his family have been embroiled in a bitter dispute with another Albouystown family.
Police officials also confirmed that the ex-cop was dismissed from the Force and was also a suspect in several armed robberies.

Add these execution style killings to the slaying of 43-year-old Bryan Dickson and the picture looks gloomy.
Dickson, a gold miner, was found dead in his East Street apartment, shortly after midday Thursday by worried relatives who went looking for him.
Dickson, also known as ‘Son Son’ and ‘Peck’ was found gagged and lying on his back in his bedroom with more than 20 stab wounds about the body. A pair of scissors found nearby was presumed to be the murder weapon.
Investigators are still trying to ascertain a motive behind his murder too.
Dickson was found murdered in his apartment shortly after lunch on Thursday after worried relatives went looking for him.
Dickson’s reputed wife, Sabrina Gobin, told Kaieteur News that she is still puzzled why someone would want to harm him. The woman said that she’s unaware of any ongoing feud between her husband and anyone.
Two other April murders, which had suspected links to triangular love affairs are also puzzling detectives.
In one case a jilted East Coast Demerara husband has reportedly admitted to threatening to kill Kitty taxi driver Balram Jadoonauth over an affair Jadoonauth was having with his wife.
But the 36-year-old suspect has denied being the gunman who ambushed and shot the 24-year-old taxi driver dead on Sunday.
Police had been working on the theory that Jadoonauth, called ‘Sanjay’, was slain because of a relationship that he was having with the detained man’s wife.
The suspect, who is also a taxi driver employed by a Georgetown service, was detained Sunday, reportedly after going to the Kitty Police Station.
However after a few days in custody he was released when police could find no concrete evidence to link him to the crime.

This newspaper understands that there was some skullduggery with regards to the investigation with a senior detective who was integrally involved in the case being subsequently reverted and transferred after allegedly collecting a large sum of cash from the suspect.
Also in April, truck driver Jadesh Dass was brutally killed by a bullet that shattered his skull after he was forced to stop his truck on the desolate Mahaica Public Road in the wee hours of the morning.
So far investigators are still searching for further evidence in the murder, although they had initially linked it to a triangular love affair involving the wife of Dass’ former employer.
Investigators had detained three men, including Dass’ former and present employer, but after a day of questioning they released them on $100,000 bail each.
Investigators have ruled out robbery as a motive since the cash that Dass was carrying was still intact.
Recently, information emerged that greens vendors who were on their way to the city at that time of the morning had observed the confrontation between Dass and his killers.
However, they quickly went about their own business when they heard gunshots.
Investigators are still trying to locate these vendors with a view to cracking the case
And in one of the most recent cases, residents of Logwood, Enmore, awoke last Thursday morning to the shocking

discovery of the bound body of Diamond taxi driver Rajendra Puran lying in a drain in their East Coast Demerara community.
Puran’s hands were bound with a leather belt while his feet were tied together with a piece of white cord.
Puran’s vest was tightly wrapped around his neck, while his jersey was pulled over his face as if the killers wanted to prevent him from seeing where they were taking him.
A post mortem later revealed that Puran died from strangulation.

Investigators believe Puran was a victim of a carjacking from outside his operating base at the entrance to the Diamond New (Housing) Scheme,

since his white Toyota Raum has also vanished.
Also on the East Coast of Demerara, investigators are still some distance away from finding the killer of Mahaicony housewife Allinva Andrews who a post mortem examination revealed was tortured and strangled.
The post mortem was performed on the body which had to be exhumed some eleven days after the decomposing remains were found at Moraikobe, Mahaicony River.
Kaieteur News understands that a post mortem performed by Government Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh revealed that the 46-year-old woman was manually strangled. Some of the bones in her neck were broken.
A police official said that the post mortem also confirmed that the victim was brutally violated.
According to the source, Andrews’ killers had thrust a 12-inch twig into her privates, rupturing her uterus in the process.

Police have questioned the slain woman’s husband and briefly detained a villager who was allegedly seen dancing with the victim at a wedding shortly before she disappeared. However, they are yet to make a breakthrough.
And the police are not enhancing their image with every day that goes by without the capture of a Guyanese construction worker who fled Trinidad after allegedly killing Nikita Ramischand, the daughter of a Trinidadian attorney at law.
Kaieteur News understands that police have received information that the suspect, 25-year-old Ramesh Sookram, called ‘Alan’, fled to Guyana the day after Ramischand’s mutilated body was found at Maracas, Trinidad almost two weeks ago.
Police commissioner (acting) Leroy Brumell had expressed confidence of catching the suspect.
Detectives reportedly questioned Sookram’s mother at the woman’s Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara home, but learned nothing of the fugitive’s whereabouts.
The murdered girl is the daughter of prominent Trinidadian attorney Odai Ramischand. She is also the niece of Attorney General Anil Nandlall.

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