Port Kaituma logger kills wife, self with homemade shotgun

Apr 22, 2014 News

A 62-year-old Port Kaituma logger shot his reputed wife dead with an improvised shotgun and then killed himself around 04.00 hrs yesterday, just hours after his spouse had returned from her lover’s home.

Victor Pires, 62, and wife, Pamela Martin, 39

Victor Pires, of Citrus Grove, Port Kaituma, shot 39-year-old Pamela Martin, called ‘Petty’, twice in the chest during an argument, before turning the gun to his head.
The couple’s 12-year-old daughter, Sunita Pires, found her mother slumped over in the couple’s bedroom, while Mr. Pires’ corpse, with a gaping bullet wound to the head, was found in the kitchen.
Kaieteur News was told that police retrieved a homemade firearm from the premises, as well as about six cartridges from the dead man’s pockets.
The couple’s three daughters, aged 16, 12 and 10; their baby son, and a 15-year-old cousin, were in a bedroom when Pires committed the gruesome act. He made no attempt to harm them.
Mr. Pires, a former soldier, also had three other children from a previous relationship.
Relatives of Mr. Pires said that he had been ailing for some time with prostate cancer. He was receiving treatment in Venezuela. Close friends said that he had repeatedly complained that his spouse was having an affair and was neglecting their children.
Kaieteur News was told that the spouse, Pamela Martin, left home on Saturday morning to visit her lover. She reportedly returned home around 19.00 hours on Sunday.
Sunita Pires, the couple’s 12-year-old daughter, said that her father was in the bedroom when her mother arrived. “He did not say anything. He just lie down and she went and ate something.”
But the 12-year-old said that at around 04.00 hrs yesterday, her cousin woke her and said that her parents were fighting. According to the child, her mother then screamed “Sunita, come quick; Victor beating me up.”
The child said that she then went to her parents’ bedroom and saw her father punching her mother. He reportedly also had a home-made gun and was loading it.
“I say ‘daddy stop,’ and he say go back in your bedroom and I went back.”
Shortly after, Sunita Pires heard a gunshot in the house. The child reportedly then heard her mother’s labored breathing, and this was followed by another gunshot, then a third.
When the child eventually ventured outside, she found her mother ‘kneeling’ on the couple’s bedroom floor. She then found her father “with his head burst” in the kitchen.

The home where the incident took place.

The child said she then used a cell phone to contact an aunt, but the police arrived first. The bodies were eventually taken to the Port Kaituma Hospital mortuary.
While the daughter said that her parents “quarreled a lot,” residents who spoke to Kaieteur News described the alleged killer as a “quiet man”, who provided sawn lumber to the community. They expressed shock that he had taken such violent action.
Kaieteur News understands that the ailing logger had recently sold his house and had recently returned from Venezuela, where he was being treated.
Just a month ago, Port Kaituma businessman Lenus La Cruz, torched his heavily-grilled home with his wife and their four children inside.
La Cruz sustained severe burns while committing the act and eventually succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital.