Buxton gas station owner gunned down
-robbery not motive of lone assassin
By Samantha Alleyne
Stabroek News
March 22, 2003
The co-owner of the Hamilton Gas Station in Buxton was shot and killed in his office early yesterday morning.
Thirty-five year-old Brian Hamilton, of 7-8 Buxton/ Friendship, was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Public Hospital after receiving two gunshots to the region of his heart.
Details of the early morning shooting are sketchy as persons who were at the gas station at the time are refusing to speak to the media.
A source close to the police yesterday revealed that it was a lone gunman who had fired the shots.
The source said that the man walked into the gas station and shot Hamilton twice through the glass door leading into his office. The man, who according to police reports had no accomplices and had no means of transportation, is said to have escaped into the village of Buxton.
It is understood that the security guard who was on duty claimed that he did not know the man.
However, the victim’s father, Oscar Hamilton, said that he does not believe that it was someone in the village who shot his son.
This was the opinion of many Buxtonians as they stated that the man was well liked and respected.
“Brian is so beloved in that village. I don’t know what will transpire... because of his death” the older Hamilton said yesterday at the hospital.
The father said he had retired from the business and had left his son to run the day-to-day transactions as he was not up to it.
“I really can’t take this thing any more,” he said referring to the crime situation in the country.
While at the hospital he called the employees at the gas station and told them to shut the station down, and said he did not know if was going to continue in business.
“I don’t know who could have done a thing like this, but this is a serious thing, it is more serious that anybody thinks,” Hamilton said.
When Stabroek News arrived on the scene some hours after the shooting, the gas station was largely deserted and police officers were conducting their investigation.
Shortly after, the older Hamilton arrived with attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes and a few minutes later the officers left.
Hughes, who was joined by his associate, Stephen Fraser, said that he was with the family as a friend since they were related to a relative of his.
In the gas station, fragments of broken glass could be seen scattered on the floor from the glass door. There was also blood in the office trailing all the way out of the station, which had fallen as Hamilton was being lifted out to the road.
A resident in the area only said that they had heard three gunshots and later learnt that Hamilton had been shot.
Residents could not say who the perpetrator might have been but were claiming it had to be someone from outside the village who committed the act.
“I don’t think is anybody in the village, I remember seeing him and everybody alright in the village...” a source told this newspaper. Persons in surrounding villages also have described Hamilton as a “nice man” whom they all liked.
Another source, contradicting the earlier account which this newspaper had received, said he had been told that the perpetrator(s) used a car to commit the act, but this could not be confirmed or disproven.
It is understood that the army patrol arrived on the scene before the police and quickly cordoned off the area.
After a while the man’s body was placed in a police vehicle and he was taken to the hospital followed by a police CRV.
Hamilton was married and had a nine-year-old daughter.
The gas station was opened in 1979 and the family also owns a hotel in the village opened in October 2001. They were forced to close this down because of poor business.
Over the last few years, Buxton has been a deeply troubled village which has seen many murders, kidnappings and robberies committed by persons suspected of being residents of the area. Operators of vehicles have been robbed and even killed while passing through and residents have refused to allow the police officers to operate there. Roads have been blocked and tyres set alight.
But despite all of this the gas station was never targeted by criminals.
On one occasion last year some persons had robbed the station but they were later caught by villagers who beat them and forced them to return the stolen items. It was claimed that the persons had not been from the village and they had later been chased away.
