Mourners flock Buxton mass funeral
by Robert Bazil
POLICE were deployed yesterday to control hundreds of mourners who flocked the Buxton/Friendship, East Coast Demerara mass funeral of the seven victims in last week's mass murder. One villager summed it up: "It's a sad day...it's a very sad moment...(these were) people you lived among." People from as far as Berbice continued to stroll into the church compound long after the service started just after 15:00 hrs. From early afternoon traffic Policemen and other cops were in place along the Buxton/Friendship public road. At about 14:10 hrs yesterday, three hearses, escorted by a similar number of Police outriders, swung on to the Rupert Craig Highway from Sheriff in the city and headed to St. Augustine's Anglican Church. As the three coffins with the charred remains of six people and the body of another entered the church, bells rang from a tower outside and one villager remarked to another near the packed to capacity church, "This is history boy." Raul Herod, 36, an Operations Supervisor with Securicor (Guyana) Inc. went on a killing spree following a family row two Tuesday nights ago. In the coffins were the killer's grandmother, Angela Herod, 97; his mother, Shirley Cole, 56; aunt, Patricia Harris, 58; niece, Jonnelle Herod, 10; nephew, Erwin Herod, 14; son, Rondell Herod, 11; and daughter Nandy Herod, 14. Raul shot them at point-blank range with a .32 Taurus pistol before he turned the gun on himself. Some of them, including the killer, were still alive up to the time a fire Raul set swept through the two-flat wooden house. The pistol and two empty magazines were recovered from the scene by Police. His son, Jermaine Herod, nine, was shot in the jaw but escaped and is a patient at the Georgetown Hospital. Two members of the household, Roger and Andrea, did not sleep at home that night and escaped. They were the siblings of Erwin and Jonelle. Their father, Clayton Sedoc, who lives in Berbice, told the Chronicle at the funeral that he was in Buxton up to 20:00 hrs the fateful Tuesday. Sedoc, who maintained his composure, recalled going to work last Wednesday at the Enmore Sugar Estate, East Coast Demerara and being told to sit down and catch his breath because there was a phone call for him. "I received the call and I was shocked to know that it was Raul, of all persons. He was not a person who would do such a thing," he said, adding that he continued to work that day, in an attempt to escape the reality. It was not until Friday that he was able to gather the strength to visit the scene at Buxton, the sugar factory foreman, dressed in a blue suit, said. Seats in the church were reserved for Government officials and others. Parliamentarians and representatives of the major political parties, Ministry of Education officials and others were present at the funeral. Mr. Oscar Clarke of the People's National Congress (PNC) and Mr. Odinga Lumumba of the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic) were among the congregation, while pupils and students from the Buxton Primary and Community High Schools occupied the front row of the church. The school children were the first to file past the closed coffins which rested on benches as the priest Father Clifton Elias prepared to commence the service, with the hymn `Amazing Grace' being sung. At this point, a woman on a microphone urged the crowd to go up from the sides, file past the coffins and go down the centre aisle, but with little success, until Police eventually brought some order. "We can't open it, it's an instruction...and we can't open it," the woman announced to the gathering. One person who paid tribute said Angela Herod will be sadly missed because she has left a legacy, while others said there was nothing bad anyone can say about the children. "We cannot say anything that will be in disrepute to their lives...be strong, be bold; there is a God who is there to lift your heavy load," the woman said. A representative of the Buxton Primary School, in a tribute, said Jonelle was always willing and happy to learn, and was a prudent reader. She participated in the Children's Mashramani Competition and represented the school at a recent spelling competition. The last day of her life she attended school, Jonelle took the family photo album for teachers and others pupils to see. Another person spoke of how Angela had touched the lives of many persons, brought comfort to others in the village, and how she and her husband were farmers. Wayne Newton, a villager who was mourning silently in the yard, described the funeral as a sad moment and wondered "What could have been in a man's mind?". Despite what people may say, "you have to be in a situation to know what it is," he said of the Herod family whom he knew. Newton remembered growing up and playing with Raul as a youngster. According to him, Buxton needs social and youth development programmes which can come from cooperation among the people. Mr. Siegfred Watson, a villager, told the Chronicle that once people have God as their tower of defence they can do nothing wrong. A blazing family row erupted in gun fire and flames just before midnight last week Tuesday, leaving the killer and seven others dead in the rubble. Herod's mother-in-law told the Chronicle in an exclusive interview last week that her daughter Denise related to her that a bad remark about her by his mother, sent him into a rage. Herod told Denise to leave the house and "go and enjoy your life" before he went on the killing rampage. Sources told the Chronicle that Herod's first wife had committed suicide some time ago. He was apparently planning the assault days before because one neighbour overheard him saying that "a few more days from now and this would be over". A villager said that on the night of the murder, there was an electricity blackout and Herod's mother had been quarrelling saying that her lamp could not be lit because he had broken the glass bottom. Herod reportedly urged neighbours to stop his mother from berating him but they did not heed his appeals. His wife Denise tried to grab him back after he ordered her to leave and after she had left, gun shots began ringing out in the house. Neighbours said he ran into a bedroom and fired five bullets at his mother. When he came out of the bedroom he saw his nephew Erwin in the kitchen and shot him twice. Erwin went into the room and came out and walked to the step and started to cry, but collapsed and later died. "The husband now shoot he auntie and then walk and come down the step. His daughter Nandy was leaning over Erwin who had fallen," a villager reported last week. She said he fired three bullets, one to Nandy and one to each of his two sons. She said that she and other neighbours left the scene and ran over the road and Raul came out and said: "You'll running? Wha you'll s.... running for? I gon catch you'll." She said that while she and others were in their hiding places they got word that the house was on fire.
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