Woman slain by gunman
A stop on the Agricola public road to fix a problem yesterday morning turned tragic when a gunman fatally shot a 27-year-old woman after she refused to hand over a bag containing more than $100,000.
Melissa Payne
Dead is Melissa Payne of Lot 56 Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara who sustained a single gunshot wound under her right armpit. Her reputed husband John Fraser also known as David Fraser escaped unhurt but collapsed on hearing of Payne’s death and had to be hospitalised.
The couple was proceeding to Georgetown when they were forced to stop shortly after 8 am when the canter they were in encountered a mechanical problem.
Within minutes and while Fraser, a contractor, was attempting to fix the problem, gunmen who were standing in an old shop across the road came over and menaced them.
One approached Fraser, another went to the woman and the third acted as a lookout. Fraser managed to run into oncoming traffic but Payne was unlucky as a gun had already been pressed against her side and she was commanded to hand over the handbag she was clutching.
From all accounts, the woman attempted to escape and was shot in the process while the men fled through a nearby alleyway with the bag and two gold chains she was wearing at the time.
According to information reaching this newspaper, Fraser had recounted that he was attempting to fix his vehicle when a “big man” with a handkerchief over his nose came up and pressed a gun to his head.
While running away he instructed Payne who was standing a short distance away to hand over the bag and run. However one of the bandits was standing next to the woman and he grabbed her. It was while she was trying to slip away from the bandit that she was shot. Fraser recounted too that he ran up the road and the gunmen shot at him and then ran into a shop across the road.
Eyewitness accounts of what transpired were slightly different. On a visit to the scene, things were calm and the canter truck had already been removed by the police.
This newspaper noticed two van loads of heavily armed policemen coming out of the road leading to the back of the village. A man was in the tray of one of the vehicles. This newspaper could not ascertain if the man was a suspect in the incident but according to reports the three men are known criminals who would attack unsuspecting villagers late at night. They would hide out in an old shop at the entrance of the street and would pounce on persons as they passed, robbing them of valuables and in some cases carrying out sexual assaults. Two of the youths are living in the Agricola while the third is from a community farther up the East Bank but spends lots of time in the village.
“Them man
been watching”
Residents recalled that the canter stopped on the public road between two shops and one of the front seats was pushed forwards in order for Fraser to fix a problem.
Stabroek News was told that the woman was standing a few feet away clutching a bag that was around her shoulder and she was acting uneasy. Residents said that from the way she was behaving the three thieves who were watching on from the shop across the road may have suspected that she had valuables in the bag and in addition she was wearing gold bangles and chains.
Persons recalled seeing the men walking across to the canter, two walked towards the couple while the other took up a position a short distance away.
When one approached Fraser, he immediately ran into the early morning heavy traffic and the woman attempted to run down a nearby alleyway. However she only managed to flee a few feet when a gun was pressed against her side. Reports are that the woman attempted to run but was shot after which the gunman snatched the bag and two gold chains she had on and ran into the village, jumping fences in the process.
Stabroek News was told that none of the men was wearing a mask during the attack.
Following the shooting there was a traffic build-up on the East Bank highway and public-spirited citizens placed the motionless woman in the back of a car which took her to the hospital. There she was pronounced dead on arrival.
The woman’s mother Debora Payne and an aunt were inconsolable when they turned up at the hospital. Debora fainted minutes after she had seen the body of her eldest daughter at the Georgetown Hospital morgue.
Amidst wails the woman said “Who ever did this, they will pay for this. Father God give me strength. Ow Meli, Ow Mel”.
The woman said that she last spoke with Payne on Tuesday about some money she had given to her to bank. Her daughter had promised that she would continue that conversation the following day (yesterday) at home.
Debora recalled that she received a telephone call informing her that her daughter was admitted to the Georgetown Hospital and that she should come immediately. Payne was described by her mother as a kind, loving person.
No faith in police
In light of the rising incidence of gun-related and petty crimes in the East Bank Demerara community residents said that they have lost their confidence in the police as they do not come when there are reports. Instead they would converge on the community when there are “major’ incidents.
According to residents many crimes occur in the village but they do not report them especially since they are being committed by persons who can be easily identified and are around them regularly.
They said that when the wayward youths commit crimes on the public road they flee though alleyways and disappear.
In yesterday morning’s incident police who just happened to be in the area arrived shortly after the incident, but there were no reports reaching Stabroek News of any attempt to track the three men.
One woman said that she had been a victim several times but it makes no sense to report them to the police.
In a release on the incident, police said a warhead was recovered at the scene.
This is simply too distasteful for me. Very difficult to accept our people are at the mercy of our young males. These criminals are heartless, gutless, narrow-minded and callous. They are similar to your insensitive leaders – your unconcerned politicians. There is no denying truth; Guyanese have evolved into such a decadent and uncaring society; I cannot relate to such pattern of behavior. Today in post independent Guyana is so totally different from that of my childhood experiences in the rural communities in the colony of British Guiana during the 1950s and the 1960s. well I hope our people simply become tired of this nonsense and begin to do something tangible like removing those gangsters from highest offices in the land and replacing them with champions of the people; public servants who place people over profits; people over personalities. Guianese politicians have been marginalizing sectors of the populace and communities for more than 55 years. They continue profiting from illegal narcotics trade while the nation is bleeding, daily. Black males have all lost their sugar-cane cutting minds. Males are holding our people, hostage. They are handcuffing the nation. they are waging a war of deprave indifference against the society which nurtured them and their ancestors for a number centuries…our people must realize their power and put an end to this nonsense by every means possible. Enough is enough more than six years of senseless victimization in Guyana but still our people only bleed and bury our dead and this continuous cycle repeats itself all too often – our people need to overturn ineptitude and charter a course of reform social political education economic reform; reform all phases of life – reform ought to be the cry of our people at home and abroad.
The Bible says, LET THE DEAD BURY THE DEAD!!!! The people in Guyana are mentally dead that’s why these things keep happening. Until someone wakes up and find a way to awake the nation, they will continue to bury the dead.
no one doing any thing, with the crime, every day is some thing, and getting worst,
come on barrat, are you seeing.10 years and it get worst.
Bharat J. and government can only create the laws, the Police must enforce them or else it is useless. They need to stop the guns getting into the wrong hands.
This is like the wild west….where the outlaws operate in daylight to kill or be killed. My prayers are with the family. Senseless and cold-blooded indeed.
The Guyana police Force needs to put ranks in disguise in the hot spots in the country Police as telephone technicians water main repair personel etc to monitor and eventualy they will get to know who are the criminals , knowing what i have seen over the years many ranks in the gpf cannot work under cover because of the way they interact with the public time to start moving the well known ranks far from the city crime can be monitered if observer ranks are in the area and uniform ranks are on stanby to make arrests.
You are spewing Arrant NONSENSE
FOR THE PAST THREE MONTHS I HAVE KEPT A CONSTANT EYE ON THE CURRENT EVENTS IN OUR COUNTRY…..TO MY GREAT DISTRESS AND DEEP SADDNESS, WHAT DO I SEE IN MY BELOVED HOMELAND, THE BLOOD OF INNOCENT GUYANESE FLOWING ON THE STREETS OF GUYANA…WHERE IS JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIM?WHAT HAS BEEN DONE ,TO APPREHEND THE MURDERER? WHO WILL PAY FOR MY SISTER’S AND COUNTLESS OTHERS WHOSE BLOOD HAS BEEN SHED. THE PROBLEM IS WE HAVE STRAYED FROM OUR PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS…WE HAVE CONVINCED OURSELVES THAT GOD DOES NOT EVEN EXIST ,BUT HE DOES AND HE IS WATCHING US FROM A DISTANCE….LOVE AND PRAYERS TO THE FAMILY………
how pathetic!!! innocent lives taken away by heartless pigs!!! police officers need to stay on patrol 24/ 7 in these troubled neighbor hood. it is extremely sickening to know you have to watch what you wear! Always be aware of your surroundings AND CARRY MACE AT ALL TIMES!!!
Isn’t it time the JF establish an outpost at Agricola. When I used to live in First Street croooks broke into our house three times, good thing no was home those times. JF need to be more proactive.
mackydog. ” Cowards die many times before their deaths. With the valiant, it’s not so. they taste of death but once, seeing that death is a necessary end, will come, when it will come.”
Cheryl,after reading your blog it is my view that it is a strange co-incidence for the vehicle to break down at that particular area.I agree with you that the circumstances are suspicious.Was this innocent woman handed over to the bandits?.My sympathy goes out to the family and friends of the deceased,but this man should be thoroughly interrogated to clear up any doubts. My view is based on what I read in S.N.and other media reports.Are Mr Green’s detectives capable of a proper investigation in this brutal murder?.
Why could it not be a stranger coincidence that the bandits were are the area the car happened to broke down. Must people be victimized over and over again when they become the victim and lose their families. Regardless, now a husband lost is wife, a mother lost her daughter, a sister or brother lost their sister, a father lost his daughter and countless folks whose lives were entangled with Melissa lost a friend or a cousin, Guyana lost another innocent life, and the government stands by doing nothing.
You know not to sounds cruel or anything when you are in a situation you have to find way mean to adapt, why not give them the bag ,why are people still walking around with that kind of money on their person with all that is going on, come on people,you life should mean more to you,my symphaty goes out to the family.