North Ruimveldt woman shot dead

-had just exited taxi

A 42-year-old mother of two was last night killed in an apparent drive-by shooting in front of her North Ruimveldt home.

Leriea Bristol
Leriea Bristol

Leriea Bristol, of 285 North Ruimveldt, was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Public Hospital  just around 9:30 pm. She was shot once to her head with the bullet entering behind her left ear splitting it in the process.

Grieving relatives at the hospital were reluctant to give any details of the shooting and would only say that she was shot once by someone who was in a car.

A cousin of the woman said that she was inside the home when she heard a screeching sound followed by a gunshot. When she rushed outside the woman was lying on the roadway bleeding. She was immediately placed in a car and taken to the hospital. The woman’s husband sobbed uncontrollably at the hospital.

Stabroek News was reliably informed that the woman had just exited a taxi when she was shot and it is believed that she could have been trailed. Her cousin was holding the bag she had in her possession at the time she was shot.

The young woman, who declined to give her name, said she could not think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Bristol.

“Is from work to home and then it is from church to home she was quiet and never had problems with anyone,” she said.

She said that Bristol operated a shop in Robb Street where she sold “clothes and anything you could think about she sell.”

When Stabroek News visited the scene the police were conducting investigations and were looking for the spent shells. Family members at home refused to comment and neighbours also said they did not see how the incident occurred as by the time they heard the shot the car had sped away.

There have been several execution-style killings this year which the police have been unable to solve. Among these are those of  Vibert Weekes, Nicholas Hoyte, Rajendra Motilall Sonilall, Sidwell Dexter Collins and Jamal Beete.

When Mon Repos businessman Sonilall was executed on April 4 (the first of seven killings that month) the question of contract killings resurfaced.

The murders of Weekes, Hoyte, Collins and businessman Terry Bacchus are also suspected cases of contract killings.

Meanwhile, police have charged the reputed husband and an alleged hit man for the May 29, murder of Bibi Raffina Saymar.

It is alleged that Dennis Persaud paid accused hit man Troy Greene a quantity of money to kill the woman.