The police have launched an investigation into circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of another member of the Guyana Police Force by an unknown assailant, in the latest in a series of shooting incidents that has gripped the lower East Coast Demerara. 

Dead is 37-year-old, Detective Sergeant, Harry Kooseram, called 'Rudy' of 149 First Street, Bladen Hall, ECD, who, according to a police press release was shot six times yesterday morning as he rode to work at the nearby Vigilance Police Station.

According to the release, Kooseram was on his way to work a short distance away from his home when a man approached him, pulled out a gun which was wrapped in paper and fired six shots two of which hit him in the chest, another three in his abdomen and one in his side.

He was subsequently rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he died at 0805 hrs. The police said the assailant escaped into the Buxton Friendship area. Commissioner of Police Floyd McDonald expressed condolences to the family and other relatives of the late police sergeant and said that the force would relentlessly pursue the perpetrator of the murder of the unarmed officer.

When this newspaper arrived at the First Street residence of the deceased policeman, several villagers, relatives and friends had gathered to lend comfort to the grieving man's family. Speaking with this newspaper, the visibly shaken wife of the deceased policeman, Pulmattie Kooseram stated that her husband had departed home shortly after 6:30 am yesterday for work at the nearby Vigilance Police Station, where he had been moved briefly recently. He was usually stationed at Cove and John, which houses the main office of the Division Command Centre, but was asked to report for duty at the Vigilance station recently. Pulmattie said that she stood on the verandah and watched her husband ride off. Then about two minutes after as he disappeared from her view, she heard a series of loud bangs, which she took for firecrackers. It was only when she saw other persons looking out and her daughter questioned the sounds that she proceeded to the front gate of their home to see what was going on. Once there, the wife said, a boy who had gone to investigate the source of the sounds, signalled to her. Pulmattie said a sense of panic overtook her and she ran back into the house to change before heading down the road where she found her husband lying in a bloody mess on the road, but still breathing. Assistance was immediately mobilized as police from Vigilance arrived on the scene and he was rushed to the hospital. She said that while doctors were attempting to stabilize him he died.

According to the wife, information that she had received pointed to a lone gunman, who had waited at a roadside stand until her husband turned into the street, before approaching him and firing shots from a concealed weapon. The man then walked away down the street in the direction of the secondary school and the rear of the village leading to the Embankment road. Kooseram, his wife said, had been in the force for over 18 years and served at various locations including Mahaica, Grove and Timehri. They were married 15 years ago and celebrated an anniversary on Saturday last. Kooseram has also left to mourn two teenage daughters Amrita called 'Suzie', 17, and Kumarie called 'Mandy', 13.

According to the distraught wife as far as she knew, Kooseram was not in danger nor had he received any threats to his life. However, she acknowledged that he was a policeman and it would have been difficult for her to know if in the line of duty he had problems with any person. It was the first time to her knowledge that he had been involved in any shooting incident. Kooseram was shot some ten metres from the ECD public road as he rode to work on a pedal cycle. Bloodstains were evident around the area where he received his fatal wounds on the left hand side of the street's edge. Residents in the community recalled hearing the shots. Yesterday there was heavy police presence on the lower ECD. On Saturday last, two young men from Bachelor's Adventure ECD were shot at - one of them, Gavin Sobers, killed -- in mysterious circumstances, which police have been investigating. Kooseram was said to have been on the investigating team.

Kooseram is the second police officer to be killed in the line of duty in recent weeks. The first was superintendent Leon Fraser who was shot while he and a police party were investigating the presence of a hijacked vehicle in a clump of bushes aback of Yarowkabra, Soesdyke/Linden Highway. Meanwhile, a release from the ruling PPP/C yesterday, condemned "the brutal execution of Detective Sergeant Kooseram at the hands of suspected criminals." The WPA, in another release also condemned the killing. Both parties extended sympathy to the detective's relatives. The Guyana Police Association also condemned the officer's killing and called on all persons who might have information relating to the shooting to contact the nearest police station. The association expressed sincere condolences to Kooseram's family, relatives and friends.