George Bacchus killing
Handyman confesses -claims he was promised $200,000
to execute informant
-murder weapon dug up from sheep pen
Kaieteur News
July 1, 2004
Exactly one week after George Bacchus was shot dead in his bed, a handyman, who was a close associate of the now dead man, has confessed to the killing.
He said that the wife of a well-known businessman had promised him $200,000 to carry out the execution.
At around 15:00 hrs yesterday, the handcuffed suspect, identified as Delon Reynolds, called ‘Fat Boy,’ took a team of detectives to the Princes Street property where Bacchus was killed.
He then directed the detectives to a sheep pen at the back of the property, where he dug up a .38 revolver that had been buried in sheep dung, and which is believed to have been the murder weapon.
The police had taken him to the scene earlier in the day but they all left empty-handed. They returned a few hours later and again went to the sheep pen.
This time the handyman allegedly said, “Is I kill him and I know where I put the gun. Take off these handcuffs and leh me get the gun”. The ranks complied and sure enough, the suspect fished the gun from the dung heap.
He was then whisked away to the Brickdam Police Station where he was further questioned.
Kaieteur News understands that the suspect has given detectives a detailed statement, in which he alleged that the wife of a city businessman promised him $200,000 to kill Bacchus.
Bacchus had alleged that the businessman was a key member of the ‘killing squad’ that had executed several people, and had also allegedly slain his brother, Shafeek, in January.
In the statement, the suspect also admitted that he and Bacchus had an altercation during which Bacchus had assaulted him.
He later told the police that Bacchus threatened to kill him so he killed him first.
He said that the threat and the assault caused him to accept the offer to kill Bacchus.
According to sources, the suspect claimed that he fired shots at random through Bacchus’s open bedroom window. It is suspected that the informant, who came to prominence in January, was in a drugged state at the time of his death.
This newspaper understands that police were last night trying to locate the businessman’s wife so that she could be questioned.
This allegation is likely to rekindle suspicions that Bacchus was silenced by persons whom he had implicated in the squad.
But it took some work on the part of some members of the household to force the confession. One member said that she happened to be at a location in the city when she heard people talking about the killing and about the possible location of the weapon.
She said that she immediately informed a policeman who responded promptly.
The handyman, who lived on the property and slept in a hammock beneath the house, was one of several people taken into custody shortly after Bacchus was slain.
People in the Bacchus household said that the suspect moved in shortly after Shafeek was gunned down on January 5, last.
On the morning of the shooting, some members of the household said that they saw him coming from the back soaking wet. They said that the trail of water led from the dung heap. No one took it for anything.
They also said that this would explain why the dogs did not bark on the morning of the killing.
Kaieteur News understands that the suspect has been giving detectives contradictory accounts of his movements on the day that Bacchus was killed. However, he finally broke down after intense grilling yesterday and when confronted with incontrovertible evidence of the location of the murder weapon.
“He (finally) said: ‘I kill Bacchus. I will take you to the place where I hide the weapon.”
Occupants of the Princes Street residence said yesterday that police arrived with the handcuffed handyman just before sundown.
According to a female occupant, the handyman in the presence of the ranks who were with him, admitted to killing Bacchus. “He say: ‘The man threaten to kill me and I kill he,’” the woman said.
She claimed that the suspect also said that he would have killed a male relative of hers, who is a policeman, had the relative been there at the time. The occupants said that the handyman, who had lived in another Princes Street residence, had moved into the Bacchus property shortly after Shafeek Bacchus was killed.
They said that he began to take care of the cattle and performed other odd jobs around the property.
However, they confirmed that the handyman and George Bacchus had an altercation about a week before Bacchus was killed.
They said that Bacchus had assaulted the man, injuring one of his arms in the process.
Despite the confession, several other occupants of the Bacchus household were still in custody yesterday.
The sister of detainee Jean Bacchus, last night expressed the hope that her sibling would now be released.
Bacchus, 50, was gunned down at around 03:30 on Thursday while sleeping in a bedroom in the second flat of his Princes Street home.
He was shot under the left eye, under the right armpit, the right shoulder and in the right leg.
A bullet was recovered from his room while a similar bullet was extracted from the dead man’s skull.
Bacchus is likely to be buried today according to Muslim rites.