Skip to main content

FM
Former Member

Lusignan residents reliving the fear of 2008

By Lakhram Bhagirat, http://guyanatimesgy.com/lusig...ng-the-fear-of-2008/

The events of January 26, 2008, still haunt the residents of Lusignan, on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD), and now they are even more fearful following the escape of notarial criminal Mark Royden Williams, called “Smallie”, from prison on Sunday. The residents are calling for increased protection to prevent Williams and his cohorts from returning to ‘finish the job.’

At around 02:00h on January 28, 2008, at Track ‘A’ Lusignan, now dead criminal, Rondel “Fine Man” Rawlins led a gang of approximately 20 men who invaded the homes of five families shooting them without reason. Forty-eight-year-old Clarence Thomas, his 12-year-old daughter Vanessa Thomas and his son Ron Thomas; 32-year-old Mohandai Gourdat and her two sons, four-year-old Seegobind Harrilall and 10-year-old Seegopaul Harrilall; 22-year-old Shazam Mohamed; 55-year-old Shaleem Baksh; Seecharran Rooplall, 56, his wife Dhanrajie Ramsingh, 52, and their 11-year-old daughter Raywattie Ramsingh, all lost their lives in the carnage.

It is believed that Williams, from Friendship-Buxton, ECD, was a part of the gang and was apprehended in June of 2008. He was charged along with James Anthony Hyles for the massacre and was later acquitted in 2013.

However, the Caribbean Court of Justice, in Trinidad, heard arguments on the appeals challenging the decision to retry Williams and Hyles for the murders. Attorneys Roger Yearwood and Nigel Hughes represented Williams and Hyles, respectively, while Senior Counsel Sir Fenton Ramsahoye, and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack represented the State.

Now in 2017, “Smallie” is on the run along with Stafrei Hopkinson Alexander, Uree Varswyck, Cornelius Thomas (a Trinidadian) along with four others. They are armed and considered dangerous.

Following the fire on Sunday, which flattened the Camp Street Prison in Georgetown, over 1000 inmates were transported and are being housed at the Lusignan Prison. The prison is located less than one mile from the village where the massacre occurred.

When this publication visited the community, residents expressed their fears over the convicted criminal being on the run.

The husband of victim Mohandai Gourdat and father of her two sons – four-year-old Seegobind Harrilall and 10-year-old Seegopaul Harrilall –related that he is fearful over the new developments.

“Right now we scared bad about what is going on here, we can’t rest in we house. People are going to sleep at their families,” he said.

The man related that he was working in Trinidad when the incident occurred and some nine years later, he is still battling to move on.

One family, which spoke on the condition of anonymity, related that they have been unable to sleep since Williams’ name was released as an escapee.

The woman said that her two daughters are afraid for their lives, adding that the fear is affecting her daughter’s mental wellbeing.

“When that (massacre) happen, me and my husband hear the very first bullet and when we go by the window. One of the boy (who died), Shazad Mohamed, he alarm went on. I prayed for my daughters to remain asleep because I didn’t want them wake. We stand up and count them bullet this, we deh through the window and as soon as them man drive off if you hear noise and from that noise me husband walk out and join to see and them people take ambulance and so and carry them people to the hospital,” she recalled.

The father of the house said that the fragile village cannot afford to have another such incident and that he is hopeful that the authorities have a long-term plan for the protection of the residents and that they are actively pursuing the escapees.

Upon traversing this area, this publication observed residents peeking out their windows but refusing to engage in conversation. During the 2008 attack, 48-year-old Clarence Thomas, his 12-year-old daughter Vanessa Thomas and his son Ron Thomas all received multiple gunshot wounds while his other son along with his wife Gowmattie Thomas survived. The woman hid behind a curtain and watched as her children and husband were riddled with bullets. Their house was the first to be attacked.

“I started to go to relatives (since the jailbreak), I can’t sleep, I am afraid,” the fearful woman related.

Attachments

Images (1)
  • mceclip0

Replies sorted oldest to newest

These people were racially pogrom by racial hate. There is no difference between these killings and the German Nazi killing of our Gypsy brothers and sisters during world war 2

Prashad
Last edited by Prashad

Look at how the PPP is screaming when it was under the PPP that this occurred.  To date the PPP has failed to reveal who the masterminds of this attack were and certainly didn't arrest any of them.

And yet they want people to think that they were safer then.  Why when para militias ruled Guyana and literally got away with murder?

FM
Last edited by Former Member
caribny posted:

Look at how the PPP is screaming when it was under the PPP that this occurred.  To date the PPP has failed to reveal who the masterminds of this attack were and certainly didn't arrest any of them.

And yet they want people to think that they were safer then.  Why when para militias ruled Guyana and literally got away with murder?

Correct, the massacre occured under the ppp but was perpetrated by the current administration, hence the pnc/afc are accountable. 

FM
caribny posted:

Look at how the PPP is screaming when it was under the PPP that this occurred.  To date the PPP has failed to reveal who the masterminds of this attack were and certainly didn't arrest any of them.

And yet they want people to think that they were safer then.  Why when para militias ruled Guyana and literally got away with murder?

How many Indians did you see in the PNC gang of murderous niggroes?

FM
Drugb posted:
 

Correct, the massacre occured under the ppp but was perpetrated by the current administration, hence the pnc/afc are accountable. 

If these claims are true then why weren't high level PNC officials not arrested, charged, found guilty and hung? 

The PPP runs around screaming as they wish to create an atmosphere of racial tension. I don't know how they think that this is beneficial, given that the Indian population is dwindling. And that most Amerindians are apathetic about the antics of coastlanders, and so vote in lower numbers than do others.

If senior officials within the PNC condoned, and organized a massacre and the PPP let them get away with it, why then are PPP supporters listening to them. This fact alone suggests that to the PPP ordinary Indians are cannon fodder to be used as Jagdeo deems necessary.

I think that Jagdeo is suffering from manic insanity as his actions defy logic in a land where the mixed identified population is growing by leaps and bounds. ESPECIALLY when we consider that over 80% of the mixed population refuse to support the PPP.

FM
skeldon_man posted:
 

How many Indians did you see in the PNC gang of murderous niggroes?

.

Given that no PNC official was arrested for this activity, and given that were these people found guilty this would have completely destroyed the PNC, one can have one of two conclusions.

1. No PNC officials were involved

OR

2.  The PPP hierarchy wanted to generate hysteria amongst Indians by using them as cannon fodder. 

 

I suggest that you pick either one. 

FM
caribny posted:

If these claims are true then why weren't high level PNC officials not arrested, charged, found guilty and hung? 

The PPP runs around screaming as they wish to create an atmosphere of racial tension. I don't know how they think that this is beneficial, given that the Indian population is dwindling. And that most Amerindians are apathetic about the antics of coastlanders, and so vote in lower numbers than do others.

If senior officials within the PNC condoned, and organized a massacre and the PPP let them get away with it, why then are PPP supporters listening to them. This fact alone suggests that to the PPP ordinary Indians are cannon fodder to be used as Jagdeo deems necessary.

I think that Jagdeo is suffering from manic insanity as his actions defy logic in a land where the mixed identified population is growing by leaps and bounds. ESPECIALLY when we consider that over 80% of the mixed population refuse to support the PPP.

You know very well why the PNC were not held accountable. They were/are 99% of the police and army, the ones charged with bringing criminals to justice.  The army and police let their henchmen in the pnc slide. You know very well how it all played out during the siege of Buxton, army man and police always informing the criminals when a raid about to happen. That is why RK had to be brought in with the laptop to even out the odds. 

FM

THOSE WHO FORGET THE PAST ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT...........

A gang of marauding (African) gunmen created havoc in the East Coast Demerara village of Lusignan, killing 11 persons, including five children, in one of the deadliest attacks in recent years.
The gunmen struck at around 02:00 hours yesterday, simultaneously kicking down the doors of five houses, slaughtering even children as they lay sleeping in their beds.

Among the dead are Shazam Mohamed; Clarence Thomas; his son, Ron, 11; daughter, Vanessa 12; Mohandai Gourdat, 32; her two children: Seegobind, four-years-old, and Seegopaul Harilall, 10; Shalem Baksh, 52; Rooplall Seecharan, 56; his daughter, Raywattie Ramsingh, 11; and his wife, Dhanrajie, called Sister, 52.


The injured are Howard Thomas, 19, Nadir Mohamed, 48, and Roberto Thomas, five.
Most of the dead were shot in their stomachs and were left lying in pools of blood that covered most of the floors of their modest homes.
The Police Ballistic Laboratory has since matched shells matched eighteen shells found at the scene of Minister Satyadeow Sawh's murder, the murder of the MMC security guards at Two Brothers gas station, Brumell and Scott at Agricola and the attack at Canal No. Two in 2007.
Speaking to this newspaper, one of the survivors of yesterday’s massacre, Bibi Zalika Baksh, whose husband, Shalem, was killed, said that at around 02:00 hours they heard the shooting which, she said, started at a house two doors away.

Baksh said that she and her daughter were also under the bed from which her husband was pulled, but the bandits, in their haste, did not see them.
She explained that, before her husband was shot, she attempted to come out from her hiding place to hand over whatever valuables the family had with the hope of saving their lives.
But her indecision probably saved her life and her 14-year-old daughter's.

“I was just hiding in the corner. Ow! Ah couldn't talk, ah couldn't do nothing. They did not see me. Then they say, 'Watch two more deh on de bed. Kill dem! Kill dem',” Mrs. Thomas told this newspaper.
She said that the men shot her sleeping son, Ron, and they then snatched her daughter, Vanessa, from her bed, and although she screamed and begged for her life, she, too, was cold bloodedly gunned down.

She said that she later heard her husband, Nadir Mohamed, groaning and came out from her hiding place, only to see her son, Shazam, lying badly wounded in a pool of blood.
“He call out, 'Ow, mammy, give me some water fuh drink and throw some pon me skin',” Khan recalled.
Noreen Seecharran,
This was brought to the attention of Acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene, who visited the area early yesterday morning and promised a full investigation into the conduct of his ranks.
Many residents expressed horror that the children were not spared.
“Dem nah come fuh rob. Look how dem kill dem pickney while dem sleeping,”

LUSIGNAN EXPLODES

 

Marauding (African) gunmen descended on the village, kicking in doors and killing people, some of whom were in bed asleep, early yesterday morning.

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Drugb posted:
caribny posted:

If these claims are true then why weren't high level PNC officials not 

You know very well why the PNC were not held accountable. They were/are 99% of the police and army, the ones charged with bringing criminals to justice.  The army

Jagdeo has a huge mouth and loves to bellow and scream.  You know full well that if PNC operatives were protecting PNC masterminds of crime and mayhem he would have had much to say about this.

But he did NOTHING.

FM
ba$eman posted:

THOSE WHO FORGET THE PAST ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT...........

A

 

Marauding (African) gunmen descended on the village, kicking in doors and killing people, some of whom were in bed asleep, early yesterday morning.

And the party who most of these people supported did NOTHING.  Even now they do nothing because if it is the case that those responsible for this massacre now rule Guyana the PPP should have been exposing them.

But they do NOTHING except try to panic people.

FM

the ppp welcome all these violence its one way to keep the indians scare and close to the party they mantra was you all see how them black man a kill collie by the way were you when all this was happening carb  

FM
warrior posted:

the ppp welcome all these violence its one way to keep the indians scare and close to the party they mantra was you all see how them black man a kill collie by the way were you when all this was happening carb  

Bai, if you can read and handastan dem Guyana newspapah, you guh see who ah kill most ah dem coolie and blackman.

FM

Add Reply

×
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×