Single gunshot to the head killed Cambridge -relative
By Nigel Williams
Stabroek News
June 12, 2002
A post-mortem examination performed on killed wanted man Compton Cambridge revealed that he haemorrhaged to death after he received a single gunshot wound to the back of his head.
Cambridge had been involved in an armed confrontation with members of the Guyana Police Force last Thursday at his girlfriend’s home at Nabaclis, East Coast Demerara.
A relative of the deceased told this newspaper yesterday that he was told by a police officer on Monday that Cambridge died from haemorrhage and had received a single shot to the back of his head, which exited through his throat. The relative said that contrary to earlier accounts of the incident, there were no wounds on Cambridge’s chest nor were there any marks indicating that he might have been injured in that region.
He said that he along with two of Cambridge’s sisters went to the mortuary to identify the body and had only seen the bullet wound at the back of his head and the exit hole just below his throat.
The police had stated in a press release after the shoot-out that Cambridge had been wearing a bulletproof vest at the time of his death. But some residents of the area had refuted this, stating that they saw the man in the yard without the vest.
However, the wound to the back of the head raises questions as to the exact circumstances of his demise. The police had said that he had died in the house during the shoot-out.
The post-mortem examination was performed on Monday and this newspaper is still awaiting word from the Public Relations Department of the GPF. Yesterday, efforts were made to obtain the details of the report and an officer attached to PR section promised to provide the information but up to press time this was not done.
Cambridge’s relative said neither he nor Cambridge’s sisters were allowed in while the post-mortem was being done, but were subsequently told the cause of his death by a detective.
Earlier, while lamenting the manner of her son’s death, Cambridge’s mother Elaine Cambridge told this newspaper that even though her son had been engaged in shady activities she was confident that he was not so dangerous and a notorious criminal as the police were claiming. Cambridge known as ‘Nand’, she recalled, had spent much time in her house prior to his death.
The police have since linked him with the death of four policemen - Senior Superintendent, Leon Fraser; police constables Sherwin Alleyne and Andy Atwell and Detective Sergeant, Harry Kooseram. He was also alleged to have murdered businessman Ramdeo Persaud and his wife Sita Persaud of Annandale and Commerce House Cambio cashier, Ramnauth Persaud.
Elaine Cambridge said that many a day before last Thursday her son used to be playing cards, football and other games along the Buxton Embankment Road. She said he was not in hiding as the police had claimed but slept every night at his home located at South Vigilance, ECD a few houses south of the railway embankment.
Cambridge, according his mother, has left to mourn nine children, who he sired with five different women.
The woman said that she had last seen her son, a carpenter by trade, the morning before he died and at the time he was not carrying a gun. She said, a few weeks ago she was forced to move from her home at Vigilance and was now living with her daughters at Company Road, Buxton.
According to the woman, mother of six daughters and two sons, after the shooting incident of a couple at Friendship on April 26, the police had identified her son as one of the suspects and had visited her home several times, harassing her and her husband.
She said that she could not put up with the situation and out of fear for her, her daughters invited her to their home.
She said that after the death of Kooseram, Cambridge had told her that the police had linked him with the crime and he was placed on a wanted bulletin, but she said that she couldn’t turn him in to the police as her son was a "big man."
Cambridge is likely to be buried on Friday.