By Nafeeza Yahya

THE body of 20-year-old Lamar Otto Petrie was discovered on the Abary foreshore in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) on Sunday afternoon.

Petrie was among four fishermen who went missing in the Corentyne River last week and is the second of the group of men to have been found dead. The two others remain missing.

Petrie, who was on his maiden journey to the high seas hoping to provide for his family, was found with his hands and feet bound. His body also bore several marks of violence.
According to police sources, the body of the 20-year-old was discovered sometime around noon but it took investigators several hours to retrieve it.

At the funeral parlour, where Petrie’s body was subsequently taken, his mother, Onika Simon, wailed bitterly. From a distance, she recognised him from the green shirt he was wearing.

The 40-year-old woman recalled that it was the same shirt Petrie was wearing when he left their Miss Pheobe home on October 5 around 05:30hrs.

While wailing uncontrollably, the mother of six recalled that her son had his full life ahead of him, and for his life to be snuffed out like this was cruel and unjustified.
“He is just 20 years old; he don’t have a wife or child nor even a girlfriend…He now starting to live life, he went out to go work and earn an honest dollar, now them kill he just like that…it wrong,” Simon said as she swept bitterly.

Petrie, the eldest of Simon’s six children, was described as a very responsible individual. He did several jobs including selling Cotton Candy and Popcorn from Skeldon to New Amsterdam, just to earn money to support himself and family.

According to his mother, Petrie fished for a while with boat owners under the Canje Bridge. He would usually set seine in the mouth of the Berbice River but never ventured into international waters. On Thursday, October 3, he was approached by the captain of the vessel, Vishnu Seeram, and being jobless at the time, he decided to take the opportunity.

He informed his mother on Friday, October 4 and spoke to her before he left on Saturday morning for the private wharf at Number 65 Village, East Berbice-Corentyne. He and the other fishermen were destined for the Surinamese waters in the Sara One vessel.

Meanwhile, relatives of the two other fishermen, Vishnu Seeram called “Kevin” of Lot 76, Miss Phoebe, and Marvin Tamessar called “Buddy” of Lot 305, Miss Phoebe, Mourant, are praying and hoping for a miracle.

They told the Guyana Chronicle they will not rest until their relatives are found.
Shamwattie Inderjeet, the mother of Seeram, said she had pleaded with her son not to go out to the high seas but he insisted as he was indebted to his boss, Ramesh Hardial.
“He said ‘mommy, I got to go because I owe the man and me gah pay him off’. I even tell he, I gon help with the money, but he keep insisting to go, so me let him go with a heavy heart. Now me don’t know if he alive or if I will ever see him again,” she told this newspaper.

Inderjeet, along with relatives of the other missing man, has been combing the beaches along East Berbice-Corentyne.
When they received a call saying another body was found in Abary in similar manner as that of 36-year-old Kawal Kissoon called ‘Ajay,’ Inderjeet decided to stay back, noting that she could not bear to see her first-born in that state.

Kissoon, like Petrie, was found with both his hands and feet tied and marks of violence about his body. His face was badly decomposed and was identified by a tattoo on his arm that read ‘King.’

The four-man crew left on October 5, 2019, destined for Surinamese waters, and was scheduled to return around October 19. The bodies of Kissoon and Petrie were some 60 kilometers away from where the boat ‘Sara One’ was found abandoned with the engine and catch missing.

Police are working with Surinamese authorities as they hope they can get some answers as to what really transpired and try to bring those responsible to justice.

A 27-year-old man is now battling for his life at the Georgetown Public Hospital after he was shot while attempting to solicit a taxi with two of his friends on Sunday morning.
Alanka Hompus, of Best Village, West Coast Demerara (WCD), was seen consuming alcohol on Saturday evening with his friends at a popular bar located at Crane village, WCD.
Based on information gathered, about 02:30h on Sunday, the trio left the location after the bar closed, but they want to party more, so they started to walk along the Crane Old Road area in search of a taxi to transport them to another drinking spot.
However, before the trio could locate a cab, they came under fire from one of the occupants of a blue motor car that was driving past them.
One of the bullets reportedly hit Hompus to the left side of his abdomen causing him to fall to the roadway as the car sped away.
Guyana Times was told that the injured man was picked and rushed to the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH), where he was immediately admitted.
Upon initial examination, it was confirmed that the bullet was lodged in Hompus’ abdomen.
At approximately 03:30h on Sunday, the injured man was transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital owing to the severity of his condition.
Meanwhile, investigators visited the scene where they combed the area, but no spent shells were found. The car involved in the crime has not been located and no arrest in this regard has been made.
Region Three Police Commander, Senior Superintendent Linden Lord, when contacted on Sunday, told this newspaper that an active investigation was underway, and his ranks were working to locate the motor car that was involved in the shooting incident.

– unarmed security officer was unable to assist

An unidentified man was on Saturday evening killed during the commissioning of an alleged robbery on Church Street, Georgetown.

Based on information received, about 21:30h, the now dead man was being chased by the 24-year-old suspect and went to the security officer at the Office of the Opposition Leader for assistance.
The security officer who is being provided by the State as protection for Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo does not carry a gun, baton, mobile phone or a radio set; hence, she was unable to call for assistance.
Upon seeing the scuffle between the now dead man and the suspect, the female guard reportedly ran and hid out of fear that the suspect might have a gun.
Guyana Times understands that the victim was severely beaten and eventually strangled to death with a belt belonging to the suspect.
After committing the act, the suspect attempted to escape, but he was apprehended by public-spirited citizens and handed over to the Police when they arrived at the scene sometime later in the evening.
While the victim’s identity is unknown, he was of African descent and was clad in a pair of short camouflage pants, blue jersey and a pair of fawn coloured “Clarks” footwear. It is not clear what items were taken away from the victim.
The suspect is expected to be charged with the capital offence of murder this week.
The Guyana Police Force is seeking the public’s assistance to identify the victim, whose body is at the Lyken Funeral Home. This is only one instance of the rise in crime although the Government remains reluctant to acknowledge the fact.
Several robberies have been committed over the past few days as well as a few murders. In Georgetown, an elderly woman was found murdered in her Bourda home.
On the Corentyne, two men were killed while two others are missing following a piracy attack on a fishing vessel.

The body of an 18-year-old man, who is suspected to be one of three bandits who shot and killed businessman Deon Stoll earlier on Monday, was found in Tucville Squatting Area today.

The man has been identified as Olijah Chesney ,18, a member of the Guyana Defence Force.He lived at Lot 562 ‘D’ Field Sophia, Georgetown.The man’s body was found around 11:50hrs by persons in the area.

The body, which bore two suspected gunshot wounds, is presently at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) mortuary awaiting a post-mortem examination.

Reports are that around 1030hrs on Monday, Stoll and his driver, Clayton Powley  came under attack as they drove into the driveway at El Dorado Trading at Da Silva Street.A security guard at the business entity was also injured and reports are that Powley sustained gunshot wounds to his hands.

The victims were rushed to the hospital for treatment where Stoll died while being treated for his injuries.