Three men appeared in a Schenectady, New York court yesterday charged with the Saturday murder of Guyanese Ganesh Ramgoolam and were remanded to prison.
Dhanashar Persaud, 26, of Moyston Street; Vishan A. Parbhudial, 23, of Maple Avenue; and Richard T. Baliraj, 21, of Queens, were all sent to the Schenectady County Jail after their arraignments by Judge Christine Clark, the Albany Times-Union reported.
Each man is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing Ramgoolam. They were arrested on Monday night and held overnight at police headquarters in that town.
Ramgoolam, a bus mechanic with a wife and young children, was gunned down around 2 am on Saturday as he exited a car in which he was a passenger. Police, who are still looking for a motive in the slaying, said the New York-based Guyanese was shot five times in the upper body and head.
According to the Times-Union, one of the three suspects is related to a man, who allegedly shot at two police officers on Sunday evening as they investigated Ramgoolam’s death. On Sunday evening, police said Adrian Bhee Parbhudial shot at police, striking equipment on Patrolman Jeremy Pace’s waistband, after which it bounced off the chest area of Patrolman Thomas Kelly’s bulletproof vest. The two veteran cops were part of the Special Operations Squad that raided a house at 935 Maple Avenue in the city’s Vale neighbourhood as part of the murder investigation.
The officers were treated at Ellis Hospital for minor injuries and released following the shooting around 7:30 pm on Sunday.
Vishan Parbhudial and Baliraj were in the house when police raided the Maple Avenue home.
They were questioned and later released, but arrested on Monday morning after police investigated further. Persaud was arrested on Monday afternoon after police staked out his home.
Police noted that it appears that Adrian Parbhudial was not involved in Saturday’s murder, the Times-Union reported.
