Terror returns to Buxton/Friendship
Three men shot dead
By Samantha Alleyne
Stabroek News
November 19, 2003
The house in which Mark Cato was shot and killed and which was later partly dismantled by relatives. (Ken Moore photo)
Terror reigned in Buxton/ Friendship on Monday night and yesterday morning when three villagers were gunned down mysteriously at different locations even as the troubled villages attempt to rebuild after months of violence.
The men killed are businessman, Michael Dublin, 56, of 64 Middle Walk, Buxton; 24-year-old Mark Cato of 137 Friendship and 40-year-old Trevor Jarvis of somewhere in Buxton.
The police, in a release issued yesterday, said that Dublin was shot and killed at around 10.05 pm by a wanted fugitive on the public road in front of his business premises. After shooting the man several times the gunman walked away.
The release said the police are investigating the circumstances of two fatal shootings and one incident where the body of a male was found with a gunshot wound.
It was around 11.15 pm that Cato was fatally shot in his home by a gunman who kicked open the house door after the occupants refused to open it.
The grieving widow of Michael Dublin, Gloria Dublin, relating what she knew about the shooting yesterday. (Ken Moore photo)
The man's reputed wife and three-year-old son fled through another door.
The police said that the gunman had earlier discharged a number of rounds at the deceased's car, which was parked on the road.
Seven 7.62 spent shells were found near the car while two 7.62 spent shells were found near the body of the deceased.
Then early yesterday morning, at about 5 am, the body of Jarvis was found in the kitchen of his sister's home with a gunshot wound to the neck.
At the home of Dublin, his wife Gloria said that she could not say why the father of six was gunned down. She said that her husband has been operating a shop on the same road where he lived for several years and it was at the shop that he was shot and killed.
According to the grieving woman Dublin along with his son and two other men were playing dominoes when a man called him out of the shop. The woman said that she could not say what the man asked her husband but she was told that Dublin was heard saying he did not know anything just before the man whipped out a gun and shot him several times.
When she received the news and rushed to the scene she found Dublin lying face down on the side of the road in a pool of blood with several gunshot wounds.
According to her the only connection her husband has with the two men is the fact that they are all from the two villages. However, she said while they were known to each other they were not friends.
"I don't know, but my husband had no problem with anyone in the village or out of the village. All the time when Buxton had the problem he would walk anytime in the night and was not troubled," the woman said.
He said her husband, who would be at the shop day and night, was viewed as a respected elderly person of the village.
She added that her husband was a member of the now defunct policing group in the area and when the problems first started in the village some persons had targeted him. "It was when the problem started that someone had thrown faeces in the shop and deh use to tell he that he is part of this [policing] group and that he was 'kochore' and that he would inform on them."
Several residents yesterday gathered at the man's house and were seen openly weeping for him. They all said he was a very good man.
Meanwhile, relatives of Cato have since dismantled the one-bedroom house he shared with his reputed wife. Stabroek News observed just part of the house standing while the household items were seen on the ground underneath another house and in the yard.
Relatives said that the man's wife was at the police station and they could not give any information on the shooting.
One relative said that after the door was kicked open he heard gunshots but no one looked out. He said the man's wife escaped and it was only after the police arrived on the scene several hours after that they ventured out of the house.
The only sign that Cato ever occupied the house was the large quantity of blood on the floor. His relatives could not say who would have wanted to shoot the man.
A visit to the house where Jarvis was shot saw relatives closing the doors and leaving as soon as this newspaper arrived. The relatives refused to speak to Stabroek News stating that no one was around when the man was shot and killed.
And in an apparently unrelated incident, a shack that was the home of a deportee in the said village was burnt down.
When Stabroek News visited the village yesterday residents were tight-lipped on the shootings, and seemed afraid to speak. From all indications a group of gunmen is still in the village terrorising villagers and threatening anyone who opposes then.
Some residents told this newspaper that even if they knew anything of the incidents they would not speak, as they were afraid of being targeted. "Girl, even if people know anything, deh ent go talk because deh frighten to talk because you ent know who next deh go shoot," one woman said.
Another villager said: "This village really ent getting better, every time you think things changing something else happening."
Persons were seen on the street corners discussing the killings and it was obvious that they were suspicious of any strange vehicle in the area.
The last fatal shooting in Buxton/Friendship occurred on the night of October 15 when Orin Agard, also known as `Predator' or `Skell Man' was gunned down not far from his home at Brushe Dam, Friendship. The thirty-five-year-old man was shot in the back as he was approaching his home.
The village gained notoriety after the five February 23, 2002 prison escapees and their accomplices took refugee there. Following this the police were virtually prevented from entering the village as they were fired upon on a number of occasions. Persons passing through the village were either robbed or killed by gunmen.
At one point, vehicles were prevented from passing through Buxton, when persons routinely dug ditches across the Railway Embankment and the East Coast main roads leading into and out of the village. Fires were also constantly lit on the road to deter police patrols. In the months of mayhem, telephone lines and pipelines taking potable water to that general area were vandalised and the services disrupted. Members of the Guyana Defence Force were deployed in the area but initially they were unable to stem the violence.
It was only after there had been some inter-gang killings and some of the wanted men wiped out that the police and the army, following successive raids, were able to penetrate the area. Some Buxtonians who were openly objecting to the violence in the village were targeted by the gunmen and were forced to flee the area. Some of them were shot at, while others had their homes destroyed by fire.