Captured handyman confesses to murdering store owner

Jul 27, 2015 News

– killers clubbed, stabbed him as he entered yard

Detectives yesterday listened to a chilling tale of robbery and murder, as a handyman revealed how he and two others clubbed and stabbed businessman Farouk Ghanie Hamid to death in his Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara premises last April.
The shocking murder of the 56-year-old owner of Hamson’s General Store came to light last Friday after Mr. Hamid’s handyman, Floyd Anthony Rammit, was captured at an interior location to which he had fled.
A senior police official said that under interrogation yesterday, Rammit provided details of the killing.
With robbery as their motive, Rammit and two accomplices concealed themselves in Hamid’s yard at Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara, while waiting for the 56-year-old businessman, who lived alone, to arrive.
Hamid eventually arrived in his Toyota Tundra, and when he entered the yard, one of the robbers clubbed the businessman behind the head with a piece of wood.

Farouk Ghanie Hamid

The men then dragged Mr. Hamid to the side of his yard. Rammit claimed that he then gave one of his accomplices a knife which he had used to cut up dog meat, and the accomplice stabbed his boss twice to the chest.
Removing Hamid’s licensed firearm and keys from the body, the killers then entered his home, ransacked the premises and filled a bag with valuables. They then headed to an area near Hamid’s home where they split up the loot. Rammit said that he then fled to the interior.
On April 16, Hamid’s reputed wife realised that something was amiss after he failed to arrive at her Eccles, East Bank Demerara residence to pick up the couple’s daughter.
After repeatedly failing to reach him by phone, the woman and an employee went to Hamid’s Nandy Park residence, where they found his body at the back of his home. The father of five was lying next to the kennel where he kept his German Shepherd. His firearm and cellular phone were missing, as well as some expensive jewellery he often wore. But detectives found almost a million dollars in the murdered man’s bedroom.
From the outset, detectives had suspected that persons close to Hamid, and who often visited his home, were behind his murder.
Police suspected that the killers were individuals who had previously visited the property and were familiar with the slain man’s dog.
Neighbours had told Kaieteur News that Hamid’s dog would bark continuously whenever anyone passed the businessman’s property.
But they said that they heard no barking around the time that the murder is believed to have occurred.
Police had questioned some of Hamid’s employees and had even briefly detained his reputed wife.
Their suspicions have now been confirmed.
Detectives had arrested another man in connection with the crime but have since released him on $100,000 bail.