Teenager shot dead in Buxton
Suspect lynched, body burnt
By Kim Lucas
Stabroek News
December 20, 2002
A teenager was killed in a barber shop in Buxton yesterday morning and the man accused of murdering him was later shot and burnt to death at the back of the village.
The early morning killing of 16-year-old Marlon Joseph shocked and angered residents of the East Coast Demerara community which has been the scene of much violence since a crime spree erupted earlier this year. Up to press time last night, no clear motive had been given for his murder. The man accused of committing the act was set ablaze after being shot.
When Stabroek News arrived in the area, several curious people were rushing to the scene to get a closer look at the burnt man. The police, in a release yesterday said they suspect "that the burnt body, which is still to be identified, may have come about as a reprisal for the killing of Marlon Joseph."
Reports reaching Stabroek News state that Joseph, who lived in the neighbouring village of Friendship, and was a student of the privately run St Peter's College in the sam
e village, had gone to the barber shop on the Buxton Middle Walk Dam to prepare for his school's Christmas party today.
The police said reports indicated that the teen left home early yesterday morning to trim his hair at a barber shop in Buxton and was later found dead. Unconfirmed reports state that prior to his death, the young man and his killer had an argument.
Shortly after 8 am, Joseph was found with a single gunshot wound above the left ear.
The police said that Joseph's alleged killer was found clad in a white vest and blue jeans at the back of the village on Company Road. He was discovered under neat coconut branches and pieces of boards which were used to light the fire.
According to the police, the man was shot to the back of the head and in the right cheek.
Joseph's mother, Marleyne Licorish, told this newspaper that she was at work in the backdam when she received the tragic news that her son, the third of five children, had been shot dead.
The woman did not know of any reason why the man might have shot her son. According to her, Joseph was always friendly and not known to have enemies.
Although several persons had been killed in the Buxton/Friendship area since the escalation of the crime spree this year, Licorish said she never expected that something so tragic could happen to one of her own.
Persons in the area said that the shooter was an "outsider" from Agricola, on the East Bank Demerara, who had sought refuge in the community. They described him as "hot fo shoot" and one woman even recalled several incidents in which the man allegedly shot other persons before taking up residence in the village.
