Unrest heats up in Linden over police shootings

Apr 09, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News – The standoff between angry protestors and ranks of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) continued to escalate on Tuesday afternoon hours after two residents were shot dead in Linden.

Kaieteur News arrived on the ground as the enraged residents hurled insults at the ranks over the shooting deaths of Ronaldo Peters and Keon Fogenay called ‘Dan’. The men who once lived a short distance away from each other were shot dead by the police. The deaths caused a public uproar in the usually quiet town of Linden.

By the time this publication arrived in Linden, residents had already taken to the streets.  In a show of retaliation to the fatal shootings, the angry crowds used old refrigerators and other objects in an attempt to block the access road which leads to the Wismar/Mc Kenzie Bridge.

Their demonstration was met with resistance as armed police ranks stood at the eastern and western sides of the bridge preventing the angry crowd and other commuters from freely crossing the area.

There had already been violent exchange of gun fire and hand missiles between angry protestors and the police. Along the crossing, evidence of deadly protests was palpable as the area was littered with spent shells and fragments of broken bottles.

A huge burnt-out tire was seen at the centre of the crossing as armed ranks and protestors stood guard on each side.

At the eastern side of the bridge, the town’s Mayor Sharma Solomon, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Amanza Walton-Desir, former member of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Vanessa Kissoon confronted ranks who stood guard at the end of the bridge as armed ranks on the southern side of the bridge engaged in a heated standoff with protestors.

Mayor Solomon, in an invited comment with this publication, expressed his dissatisfaction at the force used by the police to handle the situation.  Solomon said that the police instead of maintaining law and order have further riled up the people of Linden to take matters into their own hands.

“There is no reason why a young man should have been shot with live rounds … it is most unfortunate that this is the police way of deescalating the matter but it further escalates…So, what we are seeing here is not a result of the community but a direct result of the continued action and behaviour of the police against Lindeners.”

“An unarmed young man was murdered by a policeman last night…,” the Mayor said that officers that shot the two men were known to the community for their rogue behaviour.

The angry crowd gathered at the western end of the bridge hurled insults at the armed ranks, who were preventing persons from crossing the area.

“Y’all is a bunch a murderers, killers!” the crowd shouted, “We want justice!”

“Duh youth man get shoot cold blooded. We ain’t taking it so, police always coming in this place and treating people as they like,” an angry resident stated.  An eyewitness to Peters’ shooting told Kaieteur News that his killing appeared to be personal.

“I was there; I see when the man in civilian clothes jump out the bus with a gun in he hand. He rushed to the youth man and when the youth man see the gun, he run.  Anybody in that situation would have run because they would want know is why they coming to you with a weapon. The boy tried to run but where he went, he was cornered and the man shoot he,” the man recalled. He noted that the shooter who was later identified as… then dragged Peters to bus and drove off.

The resident said that it was evident that the police did not take the victim for medical attention as the bus drove in opposite direction to hospital.

“It looked like they went somewhere else because the bus went in the opposite direction before it pass back and went in the direction of the Linden Hospital,” the man said.

He said that at the time of the shooting, there was no allegation raised against the young man, “but now we hearing he was wanted for rape of some girl.”

The resident said, noted hours after Peters was shot dead, he learnt of the killing of another young Lindener [Keon Fogenay].  Residents told this newspaper that Fogenay was shot in the eye during a cross fire between angry residents and the police. The father of four had just returned from Georgetown where he frequents for work.

“It is a hard thing to see that these two men who lived just a few houses away from each other get shoot by police and dead within hours of each other,” the man lamented as he expressed a desire to see justice served for both Peters and Fogenay.

“Dem boys didn’t deserve duh cruel death,” he added.

Meanwhile, as prominent persons like famed businessman, Azruddin Mohamed, Kaieteur News publisher, Glenn Lall and several others poured into the town, the residents continued to express their frustration.

“We fed up of how the politicians dem does treat Linden…imagine we got gold, timber, bauxite and all kinds of things here and plenty people suffering when the day come. When we watch right here is a prime example, right over the bridge, we got a bauxite plant operated by the Chinese. They fetching out we thing by the shiploads daily.  The raw bauxite from the mine to the ship and Linden and getting nothing really from the operation,” a frustrated resident pointed.

Others quipped that it is time for a change of political leadership in the country. “We fed up with the PPP and the PNC and the others we got. We want something different, something better,” a resident stated.

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• Amanza Walton-Desir, Linden, Mayor Sharma Solomon, protestors, Vanessa Kissoon

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