Killing a waitress and hiding in plain sight

Aug 18, 2019 Murder and Mystery, News

---

By Michael Jordan

There always seemed to be a touch of mystery and sadness in her eyes, and looking at her standing behind the counter of the Chinese Restaurant that I sometimes visited, I often wondered what her story was. I never knew that I would write Debra Blackman’s story one day, and that it would be such a tragic one.

I first saw her around 2002, when she was working at a Chinese Restaurant, located a short distance from Kaieteur News. Maybe it was the satin-brown skin, or the hint of sadness and allure in her eyes, that reminded me of the actresses who played those femme fatale roles in old black-and-white movies.
In reality, Debra Blackman was just a hard-working, struggling mother.
At around 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 23, 2014, one of my contacts called to say that a waitress had been shot dead in the Delicious Restaurant, located in D’Urban Street, between Haley and Hardina Streets.
The next day, there was my sad-eyed friend staring out at me from under the newspaper headline: ‘WAITRESS SHOT DEAD AT BAR’.
They say it was around 7:30 p.m., and 48-year-old Debra Blackman was standing behind the bar when two men on a motorcycle rode up to the D’Urban Street restaurant.
According to police, the pillion rider entered the restaurant paid for a meal, then shot Blackman in the neck before escaping.
Footage from a security camera showed a man of African ancestry in a black cap, with red peak, going up to the counter and apparently making a purchase. Two other men then came to the counter, and one of them gave Blackman a $5,000 note. The footage showed the apparently nervous men constantly glancing around.

According to investigators, all clues indicated that the gunman had entered the restaurant with the sole aim of killing Debra Blackman.
Police came up with a number of motives. One was that Mrs. Blackman was slain for something someone else had done.
Blackman’s children insisted that they knew of no reason for anyone wanting to kill their mother.
“My mother doesn’t own her own house, she doesn’t have jewels, she is not a rich woman, she doesn’t have life insurance, she doesn’t have anything for anyone to want to kill her for, just her life and children,” one distraught daughter had told me.
The daughter said that security footage, which they saw showed the gunman tossing what appeared to be a moneybag at their mother before shooting her. She says this suggests that the gunman had come to rob the restaurant and had ended up killing her mom. Another suggestion made to me was that one of the bandits was connected to a previous robbery at the restaurant.
With the investigation stalled, police released a photograph of the shooter, whom they identified as the man in the black and red cap. Kaieteur News also placed part of the security camera footage on Facebook. Surely, someone knew who he was. Someone did.
HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
In early February 2017, almost three years after Blackman was slain, police got a tip that sent them to a premises at South Better Hope, East Coast Demerara. There, they found their suspect, 22-year-old Shelton George, called ‘Boorie.
The suspect didn’t try to run when the police entered his mother’s house, because he couldn’t.
Shelton George had been confined to a wheelchair. He had been shot twice in the back while in Suriname and had lost a kidney.
The badly wounded youth reportedly returned to Guyana, and in September 2015, police charged him for armed robbery and he was remanded. According to his mother, he remained on remand until June 2016, when he was released on bail.
He was reportedly attending court; literally hiding under the very noses of the police who were looking for Debra Blackman’s killer.
Investigators had reportedly received a tip that Blackman’s killer was in prison, but were provided with an incorrect name.
On February 8, 2017, seated in a wheelchair with a urine bag hanging between his legs, Shelton George was lifted into the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts and charged for the murder of Debra Blackman. He was also charged for shooting former Magistrate Mohamed Fazil Azeez on April 25, 2015, with intent to commit murder.
The accused had reportedly visited a site where Azeez was building a house, under the pretext that he was looking for a job. He had then shot Azeez in the stomach, and fled, leaving a money-bag behind.
George was also under investigation for the murder of Bernadette Campbell, 40, who was shot in a minibus at Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, in August 2014.
Campbell was sitting in the front seat of a minibus when she was shot to the stomach by a bandit who stopped the minibus and demanded that its occupants exit the vehicle, after which two rounds were discharged, hitting the woman.
George’s attorney, Melvin Duke, argued that there were no eyewitnesses to Debra Blackman’s murder. He stated that his client was charged based on video evidence, which was of poor quality.
DEAD IN CELL
The case never reached the High Court.
On Tuesday, August 22, 2017, at around 05:50 a.m. – almost exactly three years to the day that Debra Blackman was slain – crippled murder accused Shelton George was found motionless in his cell at the Lusignan Prison. He was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead. No marks of violence were found on the inmate’s body.

If you have any information about any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown offices. Our numbers are (592) 225-8465, (592) 225-8473 and (592) 225-8458. You need not disclose your identity. You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: kamarangnight@gmail.com

 

---

---