Latest update April 1st, 2025 5:37 PM
Carpenter shot dead during attempted robbery
By Romila Boodram
Police are investigating the death of a 24-year-old carpenter who was allegedly shot during an attempted robbery in Second Field, Kaneville, East Bank of Demerara (EBD) around 09:00 hrs yesterday.
Dead: Mark London
Dead is Mark Drexel London, of Fourth Street, Grove Squatting Area.
Kaneville is a small community located at the back of Grove, between Craig and Diamond New Scheme, EBD.
According to information received, London had gone into the community which is reportedly called “the house for criminals” to meet with a friend who recently came out from the interior.
Reports are that the man and his friend were walking through a street in Second Field, when another man approached the duo and demanded that London hand over his gold chain and cellular phone.
A police source close to the investigation said that just as London refused to hand over his valuables, the suspect hurriedly reached into his pocket. But before the bandit could have pulled out the weapon he was carrying, London and his friend ran in different directions.
The suspect reportedly fired four shots behind London, one of which struck and killed him instantly.
At the scene yesterday, a man who was working at a nearby construction site recalled, he saw three individuals running through an empty lot next to the building he was working on.
“I see three young men running through the grass and they were looking back and running. They run over to Craig. I know something was fishy so I was looking at them, because they look very suspicious,” the man said.
Persons living in the area could not recall hearing any gunshots or hearing anyone shout. They claimed that they only knew what transpired when they saw London’s lifeless body on the roadway with his face in a pothole.
According to Nicola London, the dead man’s sister, she left her brother at his residence (located in front of hers in the same yard) yesterday and went to her home to take a quick nap. She said she was informed about an hour later of her brother’s demise.
“Right away, I walk to Kaneville and I see him lying there on the road with a set of people standing around him,” London lamented.
She said, that despite the fact that someone had threatened to shoot him last Saturday, she is convinced that her sibling was killed during an attempted robbery.
The scene shortly after the fatal shooting yesterday.
“He work with a man in Diamond New Scheme and the man didn’t want to pay him, so he went last Saturday to collect his money and the man tell him that he would shoot him. He (her brother) went to Diamond Police Station and make a report,” Nicola London said.
She explained that when her brother was finding it hard to get employment in the city, he would usually go and work as a gold miner with his friend in the interior.
“He and this boy were very good. They grew up together, went to school together and even worked together. When he hear he (his friend) come out, he went to see him,” Nicola London related.
Another sibling, Collis London, who resides in Kaneville, said that he was at home when he received the news that his brother had been shot. He said that he did not know the extent of the injury until he went to the scene and saw the body.
“Earlier I passed him and his friend walking at Second Bridge and I went in Grove and then I went home back. It’s then when I got the news.”
This recent incident has left residents and businessmen scared for their lives. ‘
“Every day you get up to open your shop you have to pray for your life, because you don’t know what can happen in this place. I done get rob about four times, but I can’t close my business, because this is how I survive,” a villager said.
There are now calls for a police outpost in the area.
Commander for ‘A’ Division, Clifton Hicken, indicated yesterday that his team has some leads they are working on to find London’s killer.
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