Remembering five murdered colleagues 13 years later

Aug 09, 2019 News

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From the time of the February 23, 2002 jailbreak that triggered a wave of killings, the reporters who covered the crime beat for Kaieteur News had become exposed almost daily to a series of gruesome images; of bodies bullet-ridden, hacked, beheaded, skinned, burnt…
We were also taking what, in hindsight, were foolhardy risks to get our stories, like traversing the gunmen’s havens in the dead of night whenever there were reports of a killing.
Word occasionally filtered back that some gunmen and others in the criminal underworld were unhappy with some of our coverage. But we continued to take risks, though, at the backs of our minds there was always the thought that we could come to serious harm.
We never, ever dreamt that some of our colleagues who weren’t in the line of fire would feel the wrath of a group of young killers.
We never truly thought that a newspaper that was foremost in breaking the news, would itself, become the news.
All that changed on the night of Tuesday, August 8, 2006.
At around nine that night, we got news of gunfire in Bagotstown, on the East Bank of Demerara. Bagotstown and Agricola were two of the trouble spots at the time. When I arrived, I felt that same uneasy silence that I had experienced in Buxton at night. I saw few people as I traversed the streets, and those that I saw were unwilling to comment.
I was just about to return to Kaieteur News when my cell phone rang. Then I heard our editor, Gwen Evelyn, say: “Jordan, be careful. Glenn (Kaieteur News publisher) just called crying and say that they kill five of our pressmen at Eccles.”
I remember shouting ‘what?” This has to be a mistake, I thought. I guess a part of us always believes that tragedy happens to other people, rather than those close to us.
I told the driver to head to Eccles Industrial Site, where the Kaieteur News press was located. When I arrived, the gate to the compound was open. So was the entrance.
I went inside.
There, I saw Glenn Lall, and another friend. And I saw the bodies.
Five of our pressmen lay face-down and motionless on the concrete floor. They had all been shot at the back of their heads.
The victims were Chetram Persaud called “Boyo,” 46 ; Eion Wegman, 47, of Lot 51 Fourth Street, Alberttown, Georgetown; Richard Stewart, 24, of Lamaha Park, East La Penitence; and the youngest of them, 22-year-old Mark Maikoo (Marko) of Company Park, Yarrow Dam, La Penitence. Shazeem Mohamed, who was also shot in the head, would succumb about a week later at the Georgetown Public Hospital. It was later learnt that they were shot with a handgun that was stolen from a Kaneville, East Bank Demerara resident Barbot Paul, who was gunned down a day before the slaughter of the pressmen.
Only pressman Ramchand Harripersaud, also known as “Harry”, and security guard Julius De Grace escaped death that night.
Glenn Lall was emotional. “You see what they do to our workers?”
A relative of one of the slain men was there, and he said I should take pictures. I took them.
Survivor Ramchand Harripersaud would recall that he and his colleagues had heard gunshots at around 22:00hrs, shortly after arriving at work. But the men weren’t worried, since the shots appeared to be coming from some distance away.
Harripersaud said that Mrs. Bhena Lall, the wife of newspaper publisher Glenn Lall, called to warn them that they (pressmen) should secure the place, since she had heard that gunmen were in the area.
But before security guard Julius De Grace could padlock the gate, a gang of teens brandishing guns overpowered him.
Upon hearing his colleague, De Grace scream -”gunmen coming”, “Harry” said that he and other pressmen rushed to the back of the pressroom and hid in a toilet.
One of the teen gunmen warned that if the pressmen didn’t come out, they would riddle the place with bullets.
Thinking that the gunmen merely wanted to rob them, Harripersaud’s five colleagues exited the toilet. ‘Harry’ decided to stay behind.
Peeping through a crease in the door, ‘Harry’ watched in horror as the young gunmen ordered his colleagues to lie face-down. He could only watch helplessly as the killers shot the five pressmen in their heads. He remained in his hiding place long after the gunmen had left.
By the time I returned to work, everyone in the office had already heard of the tragedy. Several of my colleagues were weeping.
I remember going to my parents’ home to break the news to them and to let them know that I was safe. “I want you to keep calm,” I remember saying, and telling them about the tragedy even though part of me was still in denial.
I believe that many other media houses would have come to a standstill in the wake of such an ordeal.
Glenn Lall decided though, that the newspaper must be published, and it was.
While three persons were charged for the murders, none was convicted.
In February 2013, Dwight Da Silva, the last man accused of killing the five pressmen was freed of the charge. Da Silva, along with Quincy Evans and Jermaine Charles called ‘Skinny’ (now deceased), were charged for the murders of Eion Wegman, Richard Stuart, Mark Maikoo, Shazeem Mohamed and Chetram Persaud.
Evans was previously freed in the Magistrates’ Courts, while Charles was killed in a shootout with police after he had escaped from custody. The matter against DaSilva was discharged because of the lack of evidence.
A Kaieteur News editorial two days after the killings aptly summed up the spirit of the staff:
“We feel nothing but utter revulsion and contempt for those who brutally murdered four innocent Kaieteur News printery staff and left two others seriously injured on Tuesday night.
“This unspeakable act is much more than a personal tragedy for the families of the victims whose loved ones and breadwinners have been plucked from them so suddenly, cruelly and senselessly.
“It is much more than a tragedy for Kaieteur News, which now has to shed blood and tears in addition to the toil it takes to produce the best newspaper in Guyana. Above all, this despicable attack is a monumental national tragedy.
“One thing is absolutely certain. Kaieteur News will never give in to the criminal elements who shed the blood and took the lives of our innocent colleagues. We have been deeply wounded, but we remain unbowed. We are determined to demonstrate that our fallen colleagues did not give up their lives in vain.”
May the souls of our fallen colleagues rest in peace.

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