Bandits slay mother summoned by infant son's screams
Stabroek News
March 12, 2003
It was a mother's concern for her crying child which perhaps cost her her life on Monday night, when bandits shot her dead in her Albouystown home.
Thirty-eight year-old Kashmattie Singh called `Shanta,' the mother of a 22-month-old son, was shot five times by gunmen who invaded the Albouystown business premises operated by her husband, Basdeo Narine, demanding money and jewellery.
"This is it; I'm leaving and not coming back," was Narine's reaction yesterday.
Narine, also called Patrick Singh and an overseas based Guyanese, who had been scheduled to return to the United States yesterday, but opted to spend the upcoming Phagwah celebration with his young family, saw his world shattered in only fifteen senseless minutes.
Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday, Narine said that the bandits were only able to escape with some $7,000 retrieved from the wholesale and retail business place which he had been operating for the last 32 years.
The business, Pato's General Supplies Agency- Wholesale and Retail located at the southwestern corner of Hill and James streets, Albouystown, is normally run by Shanta's nephew, 21-year- old, Omesh Singh.
Omesh was in the shop at the time but ran for cover into a rear storage area as the bandits commenced their attack.
Narine said that two men both armed with handguns entered the shop and after throwing a sizeable rock into the glass case, managed to reach behind the counter after climbing through the hole. Three more bandits, Narine said, were left outside on the road. All were armed with handguns.
Narine, who had gone to the upper flat of the building to get some change, was returning when he saw one of the men kicking at the show window before ducking to gain entry.
Thinking that someone was having a fight with the shop attendant, he was about to proceed when he heard what sounded like a gunshot causing him to retreat to the upper flat.
All the while he kept calling for his wife whom he later realised was on the verandah to tell her to hide. He subsequently hid in one of the rooms in the upper flat.
Once inside the shop, the bandits turned their attention to Omesh Singh who realising he was in danger hid himself in a rear bond and took off the lights.
All the while Shanta's infant son who had been left seated on a desk in another section of the business place was screaming. It was after the men had failed to find Omesh that they proceeded to kick down a door leading to the upper flat.
But Shanta had started downstairs summoned by her son's crying, and came face to face with the gunmen who after firing a shot at her, began asking for "deh money and jewels."
Shanta, according to Narine, begged for her life but from the safety of his hiding place he heard five shots ring out, followed by a prolonged period of silence. He later found her bullet-riddled body lying face down in a pool of blood at the top of the internal stairway.
"She told them that she did not live here... which is true," Narine said, since she would only come whenever he was in the country.
According to the man on examining the body he saw five entry points in her upper torso.
During this newspaper's visit yesterday, although the spot had been cleaned, bullet holes could still be seen in the wooden floor.
According to the businessman, he was frightened of being next on the bandits' list of targets.
He plans to only open a small window to sell off the perishables in the store while seeking to sell the other items on the road.
It is only the presence of his infant son that will keep him coming back home since he will have to make arrangements for him to come to the US. In the interim the boy will be left with relatives in Essequibo.
