Police were up to late yesterday trying to determine the motive behind the shooting attack in which Zaheed Khan, called ‘John Boy’, 24, of Lot 27 Singh Street, Sisters Village, West Bank Demerara, and Basant Dyndial of Grove Squatting Area, were killed.

Wedding house slaughter

Police were up to late yesterday trying to determine the motive behind the shooting attack in which Zaheed Khan, called ‘John Boy’, 24, of Lot 27 Singh Street, Sisters Village, West Bank Demerara, and Basant Dyndial of Grove Squatting Area, were killed.

John Sahadeo, 36, of Lot 150 Second Street, Craig, was also shot in the head and his wife Nalo told the Chronicle that he underwent emergency surgery but was late yesterday still critical in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

Terror struck as relatives and guests were celebrating the marriage of Sahadeo’s son Rajen, 20, and Dyndial’s daughter Devika, 16.

Khan was playing the music and there was merriment in the air when horror swooped on the wedding house in the form of a lone gunman who witnesses said seemed crazy.

They and neighbours said the gunman seemed to have been a member of a gang that had earlier swept through the two villages and nearby Kaneville.

The tragic events unfolded around 20:30 h when the gunman, who witnesses described as ‘short and stocky’ walked into the yard where the wedding was held, using a young woman and her baby as his shield.

According to Rakesh Raghubir, he and several men were sitting on a bench under the house when the timid looking woman walked into the yard.

It was only when she got closer that they saw a gun by her chest and someone behind her was holding it, he said.

The gunman had apparently held up the woman and her child and hid behind them as he stalked the wedding party, residents said.

“He tell we fuh lie on de ground and don’t move or he gon shoot we”, he recalled.

He said one shot hit Basant Dyndial in the region of the heart and he slumped over on the bench, dead.

Eyewitnesses recalled that although they complied with the gunman’s request to lie on the ground, he continued to fire indiscriminately.

Another shot hit Khan in the chest and he managed to drag himself to a post where he bled to death, they said.

Sahadeo was also hit by a bullet, they said.

Yesterday, Khan’s sister Molly said she had spoken to her brother earlier in the night and he had promised to be home shortly.

“He seh that it was de last night for de wedding and he gon come home”, she recalled.

Witnesses said the gunman fired about six shots and picked up the spent shells as he went along.

Nalo said the man declared that he wanted revenge for an accomplice who was shot earlier that night.

“He seh that somebody shoot he friend and he want revenge”, she told the Chronicle.

Others at the wedding house said the man kicked and beat them but did not rob them.

The ordeal lasted some 15 minutes before the gunman took three girls from the wedding house including the bride, Devika.

Witnesses said he demanded that they take him to a house that had money.

The frightened girls took him to a house five yards down the street where the man proceeded to beat and rob those inside.

Witnesses said the man panicked as the cops arrived and fled, leaving his booty behind, but not before engaging the police briefly in gunfire.

Nalini Khan, one of those in the house that the gunman barged into, said he slammed her against the wall while she was holding her baby.

He also hit Kamala Singh on the side of her head with the gun butt and cuffed her about the body.

Villagers said the killer was one of six men who had earlier attempted to rob a home in neighbouring Kaneville.

Barbot Paul, 53, of 312 Second Field, Kaneville, said the six had earlier that night surrounded his yard.

He said he returned home around 20:05 h and checked his yard as was his custom.

“I fired shots and they began to run through the yard”, Paul said.

He said two of the men jumped the eastern fence, three jumped the southern fence, and the other made his way to the front.

The men left a green bag containing three jerseys, a tin of mace, a Rolex wrist watch and a pair of scissors behind.

The description given by Kaneville residents fit that of the man who later carried out the deadly attack on the wedding house.

Another Grove resident, Sakoor Shebalall, was severely beaten by another gunman around 21:30 h Monday.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005