DEAD: Koshmantie
Singh
|
Narine, who
operated Pato's General Supplies Wholesale and Retail store for more than 35
years, told the Chronicle yesterday that he is now very fearful for his life. He
said he has no desire to continue doing business there.
The
businessman's wife, Koshmantie Singh, 38, also known as 'Shanta', was pronounced
dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), officials
said.
Ms Singh was
brutally shot twice in each breast and once
in her chest after pleading with the bandits to spare the life of her almost
two-year-old son, Hrithik Singh.
ANGUISHED businessman, Basdeo Narine and his son Hrithik
Singh. |
"I ain't
opening that door for dead now, because dem gon come fuh me next", he
remarked.
Narine was not
injured during the attack because he had secluded himself in a room, but an
employee and Omash Singh, nephew of the deceased woman, was shot in the left
great toe, hospital officials said.
A customer, Tyrone Fletcher, 31, of Agricola, Greater Georgetown, was reportedly shot in his leg.
ATTACKED:
Pato's General Supplies store, which was robbed by
bandits.
After
terrorising the family, the bandits took off with $7,000, Narine
said.
He related to
this newspaper that around 19:30 hrs on Monday he was in the shop attending to a
customer and had to leave the counter area to make some change.
As he was
returning to the counter with the change, Narine said, he saw two men armed with
guns trying to force their way behind the counter by breaking through a glass
case. There were also about two other gunmen outside the building keeping guard
for their accomplices, an eyewitness reported.
Narine said
that as the bandits were forcing their way deeper into the shop, his employee
ran towards the section of the premises where metal is stored, intending to
escape gunfire.
The
businessman said that about this time, he too ran, but to the upper flat of the
building where his wife was with their baby. He alerted her to the fact that
bandits were in the building.
During that
time, he heard shots being fired, but could not say from which
direction.
He then heard
one of the men harassing his wife, who he believed the men had stopped in the
stairway demanding money and jewellery.
Narine said he
heard his wife telling the men that she did not live on the premises and so she
could not tell them where any of the valuables were kept.
He said what
his wife told the bandits was true. He explained that she spent most of her time
on the Essequibo coast attending to other family business there.
The
businessman said that after the last shot was fired in the building there was
silence.
It was at that
point that he suspected something had gone wrong with his wife. He said that
when he decided to come out of his hiding place to check on his wife, he saw her
lying head downwards on the stairway with blood on her body.
"I went and
shake her hands and head, and she didn't respond. So I realised she was
dead."
Narine said he
immediately asked a few persons, who were around to assist him in closing the
shop and taking his wife to the Georgetown Hospital. As he feared, his wife was
pronounced dead by medical officials at the institution.
Police arrived
at the scene shortly after the bandits fled, and soon, throngs of curious and
shocked residents gathered outside the business place.
Yesterday, the
Guyana Bar
Association (GBA) condemned the killing of Koshmantie Singh and the act
of banditry committed on the family.
The
association's President, Mr. Nigel
Hughes, told the
Chronicle that the GBA condemns all forms of violence wherever they occur with
no reservations.
He offered his deepest sympathy to the bereaved family
Tuesday, March 11, 2003