The murder of Vivian Walker, who was killed a week ago in Berbice, was the fatal result of a circle of revenge, a close relative says.
Walker, 26, of Sand Hills, Berbice River, died after he was shot around 9 pm last Wednesday, while playing cards at a friend’s home. Nine pellets were later found embedded in his chest. Three people who were with him at the time, two men and a woman, were taken into custody for questioning and later released.
The police, who dispatched a special team to the area, are reported to have taken another man into custody and are also said to be searching for the prime suspect, the relative of a Hofwerk man whom Walker had wounded three months before.
A post-mortem examination found that Walker died of shock and haemorrhage due to the gunshot wound. He is to be buried today.
According to the dead man’s aunt, Evelyn Walker, the vengeful storm that ensnared him had been brewing for years. She explained that since his school days there had been animosity between him and four brothers. “…Because it was him alone, they always banking up on him and beating him,” she told Stabroek News. As they grew older, she said, the situation worsened and last year when the youngest of the brothers savagely ambushed him and beat him as he was walking to his farm. He swore revenge.
Evelyn Walker said her nephew was angry and he attacked the man with a cutlass in September. He almost severed the man’s left hand during the attack.
He turned himself over to the village captain and was subsequently handed over to police at the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam. He was later charged with felonious wounding and was subsequently released on bail. The aunt said the man’s release incensed the wounded man’s relative, especially since he was unable to use his hand after the attack. As a result, he too swore revenge, claiming he would go after Walker once he left New Amsterdam to return home.
Walker returned to Sand Hills and was playing cards on the veranda of a friend’s house in the savannah when the shooting occurred. Initially, no one was sure what happened. “He was playing cards with them, they heard a big boom and he fell dead,” his aunt said. Because his assailant would have had to have journeyed into the area by boat and walked some way in to find the house, the woman is sure that his murder was an act of revenge. She added that she also received reports that persons were inquiring about him at a campsite near the house, shortly before the shooting. “They shouldn’t have done that, they should have left the matter in the hands of the police,” she said.
Now, she added, the family has been trying to pacify one of Vivian’s brothers, who is upset about his brother’s death. “His big brother is vexed and wants to kill somebody,” she said.
