West Bank Demerara youth killed by stray bullet

Sep 03, 2013 News

…residents blame police for failing to act after several reports

The West Bank Demerara community of Vive-la Force was yesterday afternoon plunged into sorrow following the death of a 14-year-old resident who was struck by a stray bullet.

Dead: Ryan Persaud

It is believed the bullet which killed Patentia Secondary School student Ryan Persaud may have come from a high powered rifle believed to have been fired, some distance away on the Eastern side of the Demerara River.
Persaud was shot in his back while walking on the dam in front of his house. He died on his way to the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
Residents have however turned their anger towards ranks of the Wales Police Station who they say failed to act after several reports were made about stray bullets coming into the community for the past several weeks.
The crowd of concerned residents yesterday told this newspaper that the police are to be blamed for the youth’s death and are demanding that action be taken against the ranks responsible.
The slain teen’s father, Vishnu Persaud said that his son had just left the yard when someone informed him that he was shot.
“When I run out, I see him lying on the bridge, blood coming out from he mouth and he hollering and like he panting for breath.”
The father of three said that he rushed his son to the hospital but he died on the X-ray table. “This thing happening long now and we reporting this matter over and over but the police are not doing anything. The other day a bullet pass through-and-through my house and it pass through other people house too,” the dead teen’s father said.
Another teenager in the village, Feroze Husain told this newspaper that he was sitting in front of Ryan’s house catching shrimp when he saw the 14-year-old approaching him with a sling-shot in his hand.
“He bin walking coming and then he start hollering that something hit him in his back and he run come and tell me to check but he collapse on the bridge and blood start running from his mouth,” Husain stressed.

The dead boy’s mother

A resident in the area, James Munroe explained that the gunshots started about three weeks ago and he, as well as other residents, reported the matter to the police. “The bullet hitting people house and the police tell we when the shooting start back, we should call them.”
Munroe added that when he returned home from work yesterday he called the police and made a report. “I call them and tell them that the shooting start again. Five minutes after I call again and I tell them that somebody gone dead and then they will come.”
“I call back again while riding out from the village and I report it again and the police ask me what I want he to do, so I tell he to call the people from Grove and let them check it out. When I hang up, my wife called me and tell me that Vishnu son get shoot and he die,” Munroe stared, while adding that he called the station again and informed them that somebody died but they never showed up.
The man told Kaieteur News that after the teen was shot, the shooting stopped. “It look like somebody here call them over there and tell them.”
Meanwhile, the teen’s mother was inconsolable and could only say, “he was not a bad child.”
Investigators from the police’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) said that it appears that the stray bullet may have lost altitude because of the distance from which it was fired. Kaieteur news understands that the investigators are questioning several persons on the eastern side of the river with a view to ascertaining who was