15 and more lives wasted

Oct 20, 2019 News, The Story within the Story

By Leonard Gildarie

On Monday morning, I was preparing for work when the news came in.

Leonard Gildarie

A police escort car had collided with a private car and a number of persons were killed.
Within hours, the news was confirmed. Five persons were killed including the driver of the police car.
The details started to emerge. In the private car was a newly-wed elderly couple. A policewoman who was stationed as security of the Diamond Hospital was among those killed.
Security cameras videos and photos of the scenes told a heartbreaking story of a couple seconds catastrophic event.
The escort car was heading to the home of President David Granger. It was speeding from all accounts with its lights flashing. However, it came around a corner too fast and was suddenly in the lane of the oncoming private car.
The videos show debris flying and a horrifying slow motion event of the two cars spinning with the police car coming to a stop in a nearby trench. It was all over in those few seconds.
I could imagine at the Diamond hospital the horrified expression of the staffers there who had to deal with the body of one of their own.
President David Granger was on the scene at Friendship, East Bank Demerara shortly after. There were bodies on the ground.
The driver of the private car was trapped and rescuers had to cut the car open to take his body out.
In a few second, the lives of five persons were snuffed out.
We were in office at Kaieteur News and I could not but help but think of the lives lost.
The body count has been more than 15 in the last two weeks, due to unnatural deaths.
We have the two fishermen at Shell Beach, Region 1, who were slaughtered not far from their home and within hearing distance of their mom.
In Berbice, four fishermen will never come home again. Two bodies, bound and beaten, were washed up onshore. Post mortem results told a shocking tale. We actually have cold-blooded people who tied men up and threw them overboard in the ocean to drown.
Who does that? They had families, a few who will never find closure.
There were the five from the Friendship accident.
Then there was the shootout on Da Silva Street, Newtown, involving Deon ‘Mow’ Stoll.
For the miner, it was another day of conducting businesses.
Unconfirmed reports said that he had just visited the barber also.
In the bandit attack, Stoll and two other men, including his security and one from the gold dealer were shot.
Stoll has eight children, I am told. He has scores of employees and one of the biggest hotels in Region 1.
His family is well known on the Essequibo coast, at Charity.
The mining community was thrown into shock.
One of the bandits was believed to have been shot.
In the fallout, a doctor on the East Bank Demerara was taken into custody.
He is in his early 20s. He had everything going for him. He had been stationed at several hospitals.
Unfortunately, police sources have been describing him as the “gangster doctor”, as there are indications that he allegedly had been treating wounded criminals.
The getaway driver was captured and car used in the attack seized after being abandoned at Peter’s Hall.
On Church Street, a man was strangled on the bridge, leading to the office of the Opposition Leader. The police woman, working security, was unarmed and unable to do anything. It is believed the attack started as a robbery.
On the West Berbice area, several members of the family, including the wife, are in custody after a rice farmer was shot in what is supposed to be a home invasion. Police suspected there was more to the story and arrested family members.
A Sophia woman died last week. She was lit afire by an angry ex-partner.
Yesterday morning, I awoke and looked with disbelief at a video of a group of young men, teenagers including in the Stabroek Market area.
One of them went up to a man who was standing, apparently texting, stared at him, grabbed the phone and ran.
‘Downtown’ in Georgetown has become a free-for-all. The complaints have been fast and steady.
The robberies and beatings of victims are traumatizing.
I love Stabroek Market, but I can count my fingers and tell you how many times I have been there in the last five years.
I am scared…and those who know me, understand that there is little that can unnerve me.
There is need for the police and even the Joint Services in the critical areas of the city. There is a problem and we have to acknowledge it.
People are genuinely fearful.
With regards to the deaths, I have been raising this point over and over again. We are losing too many of our people to senseless deaths.
The pirates will have to be taught a lesson. They are largely fishermen gone rogue. There can be no remorse for them. Their aim is to destroy at any cost.
Anyone who ties someone up and throws them overboard into the water alive to drown is a cold animal who needs to be treated as such. We have no place for persons of such ilk.
We are experiencing a bad patch.
It is time we regroup and pick up the pieces.
We can do better.