Taxi driver found dead with bullet wound to head

Mar 30, 2014 News

Reminiscent of the days when bandits operated with impunity, the body of a 24-year-old taxi driver was found slumped in his car with a bullet wound to his head late Friday night.

Roopchand Darsan

The body of Roopchan Darsan, of Logwood, Enmore, East Coast Demerara was found around 22:50 hours on Friday in his motor vehicle which was partly submerged in a ditch along the Strathspey Railway Embankment, a few miles from his home.
Police are working on several theories, one of which is that Darsan is the victim of a botched carjacking by a lone passenger.
Kaieteur News understands that Darsan had been operating as a taxi driver at the Enmore Junction for the past five years. He recently purchased his own Toyota Spacio and would normally work late at nights to meet his obligations.
It is not clear where the young driver picked up his passenger, but investigators believe that he was lured to the dark Strathspey Railway Embankment where he was shot while trying to prevent the carjacking.
Detectives are trying to ascertain if Darsan was shot before his car crashed into the ditch or if he crashed his car and angered his passenger who then shot him in the head.
This newspaper was informed that persons in the area where Darsan’s body and car were found have reported hearing a single gunshot and seeing a figure emerging from the car and running towards the Strathspey backlands.
At the dead man’s home yesterday, relatives and neighbours had gathered to offer comfort to his grieving mother and father.
His father, Roopnarine Darsan, told this newspaper that he was at work when he received the tragic news.
He said that his wife and other relatives came to his work place and told him that his son was shot. That was just after 01:00 hour yesterday.
“Me lef wuk and come away and me go with dem straight to whey get the shooting. Me see de car deh in de trench, de front deh down and de back raise up,” Roopnarine Darsan recalled.
He said that his son was slumped over the steering wheel.
According to the father, although the taxi driver never expressed fear for his safety, given the type of work that he had been doing, he would normally finish working long before midnight.
The young man’s death is taking a toll on his mother Latchmin Darsan. “Ow gosh, me ain’t know how fuh explain this. Is me only son,” she cried.

The car in which Darsan’s body was found.

The woman remembered two men coming to her house on Friday night, bringing the sad news of her son’s death.
“Two negro fellas come with car and call we. Dem call and say how dem hear ‘Auntie yuh son get shoot’. Me ain’t really know dem but they say dey wukkin at de junction (where her son works),” the dead man’s mother recalled.
She said that she immediately called out her daughter and together they left their home and went to the scene where she saw her son slumped in his car.
“When me really look good me see he head,” she said pointing to the left side of her head.
Colleagues of the dead taxi driver were also in shock after learning of his passing.
One taxi driver told this newspaper that another driver had seen Darsan’s car in the ditch and thought that he had crashed and had left it there.
“He come and say, ‘Me see alyuh partner like he crash by Strathspey’. He didn’t know was dead de man dead in de car. Is when people go and check and see inside, then dem know is wha really happen,” the driver said.
They are convinced that Darsan was not hired from the taxi park from where they all operated.
They believe that he either picked up the passenger on the road or was contacted via telephone to make the pick-up.
“That is why me gat fuh know is who callin me before I go pon a pick up. No strange body can’t call me fuh pick dem up, especially at night,” another driver stated.
Police have combed the area and have dusted the dead man’s car for fingerprints but up to press time last night, no one had been arrested.