…while sleeping in hammock at Better Hope

Roger Bunbury, also called “Don Dick”, whose name had been inscribed on the list of Guyana’s most wanted criminals in 2002, was gunned down on Friday morning as he slept in a hammock in the verandah of his home at Lot 724 Good Hope, East Coast Demerara.
The now dead 57-year-old had been named in a list of 42 most wanted men for whom the Guyana Police Force had issued bulletins 15 years ago. Others on the list had been the infamous five from the February 23, 2002 jail break: Dale Moore, Troy Dick, Shawn Brown, Andrew Douglas and Mark Fraser.

The most wanted list had also included names such as Premkumar Sukraj, also known as ‘Inspector Gadget’; Christopher Belle, Romel Reman and Dillon Ackra, among others.
Bunbury had been wanted for questioning in connection with a series of robberies under arms, and had been named in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of taxi driver Vivekanand Nandalall in October 2003.
Bunbury had been recaptured in November 2007 in Sophia, but had been released without charges being instituted against him.
On Friday at about 00:45h, the self-employed man was shot in the verandah of his home, and he ran towards the kitchen, where he collapsed and died. His relatives converged at his home on Friday morning, and were evidently in mourning as they make preparation for a wake. His reputed wife, with whom he had shared the flat concrete house, was being grilled by detectives; but his sister, Clair Bunbury, explained that she received a telephone call informing her that her brother was shot and killed.
The aggrieved sister recounted that at about 1:15h, she and other relatives rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where she saw the doctor attending to her brother, but from all indications, the news was devastating. After some time, the doctor informed them that her brother was dead. She was, however, asked to identify her brother’s body.
“He was lying on the bed and I recognise a bullet wound to his right side jaw, and that might have been the fatal wound,” she stated.
The sister said she subsequently spoke with the dead man’s wife, who explained that prior to the shooting incident, she had heard someone calling several times for Bunbury, who was asleep in the hammock.
“She told me that after a few minutes she heard a commotion, and then three gunshots. She said she was afraid to come out, but after the place went silent, she went to check…” It was then that the wife saw a trail of blood leading from the verandah to the kitchen.
As she looked closer, she saw her husband lying in a pool of blood. Without hesitation, he was picked up and rushed to the hospital.
Further asked if the shooting might have stemmed from a pending court case wherein her brother had been charged for unlawfully wounding another man, the sister said the family thought about it but was not sure, and as such would leave the Police to conduct their investigations.

The mourning sister explained that her brother had had previous brushes with the law, but she believes that since that incident he had been a changed man. The now dead man had operated a business at home.
Meanwhile, one of the man’s step daughters told Guyana Times that after the shooting incident, a man was seen scaling the fence. The man, she explained, was wearing dark clothing and a tope covered his head.
The man was subsequently spotted by another resident riding towards the backdam in a state of panic. This bit of information was passed on to the Police as they launched an investigation into the execution-style killing.
Police have confirmed that three spent shells along with a warhead were found at the scene. At the time of the shooting incident, several persons were at home, including the man’s 11- and 13-year-old children.
His body is at the Georgetown Public Hospital Mortuary awaiting a post mortem examination slated for Monday.
The police are continuing their investigations.