Three Guyanese died in a bloody murder/suicide in Florida triggered by anger over a divorce settlement which saw the killer losing his house and being forced to live in a car.
On December 20, 51-year-old Khemraj Dhani forced his way into his ex-wife’s Polk County home and shot her and her first ex-husband before turning the gun on himself, according to The Ledger.com.
At the end of the drama, Khemraj and Kalowti Dhani lay dead while Bridjnath (only name) was mortally wounded after sustaining five gunshot wounds. He succumbed on December 26 at the Lakeland Regional Medical Center. The three were originally from the Canje, Berbice area. At least two of the bodies are to be returned to Guyana for burial.
According to The Ledger.com, at about 6 pm on December 20, Khemraj broke a window at the home and began firing a gun. His 17-year-old daughter ran to the bathroom, locked it and then escaped through the window. Kalowti, 49, and Bridjnath, 50, were unable to flee.
Khemraj appeared to be enraged that Kalowti had resumed a relationship with Bridjnath even though the latter had a wife of 18 years.
In a tape recording that was found on his body after the shooting and released by the Sheriff’s office, Khemraj vented his spleen.
He blamed Kalowti for taking advantage of him and the courts and his lawyers for not giving him justice, his financial problems and his inability to return to Guyana to see his family.
“When you see me kill my wife and … ex-husband, don’t blame me, blame the court system where you get in Bartow and the three judges what involved in the case … they put me in the road so she can live with another man in my house that I work and sweat for,” he said on the tape.
“She took everything, all my money and everything … she took every cent I worked for,” he said.
“Everybody push me around, I hire two lawyer (and they did not represent me),” he said. “I am an idiot I don’t have no education so they can do me this. I am an idiot …
“Do you think it’s fun to live on the road? And you work so hard for what you get… Everybody want my money, money, money. I work like a slave… “
“I can’t live like this in my car… I don’t have a proper rest when the night come, so this is it. I’ve had enough now,” he said, according to the transcript.
Dhani said he was also angry that his daughter was being told to call another man her father.
“Do you know how that make me feel? And she mean the world to me,” he said. “There is consequence to pay when you tell a next man kid that you is her father and he have to pay the … consequence”, the Ledger.Com reported him as saying on the tape.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told The Ledger.Com that Khemraj had been arrested in the past on charges of aggravated battery and aggravated stalking and had been taken into custody under the state’s Baker Act which allows a person to be held for mental health checks.
Kalowti had filed for a temporary restraining order against Khemraj on September 26, 2008 and a judge issued a permanent restraining order against him on October 28, 2008.
Stunned
Bridjnath’s second wife, Babso Bridnath, was left stunned by the developments. Bridjnath had moved to the US in 2005 and Babso joined him last year. It would appear that when he got to the US he resumed a relationship with Kalowti.
In Guyana Bridjnath had been a field superintendent with the Guyana Sugar Corporation. According to the Ledger.Com, in the US both he and Babso worked as overnight security guards at different companies in Winter Haven and he also worked at an additional security job.
With only one car, Babso said she relied on Bridjnath for transportation. On the fateful day, the two left for work as usual at about 4 pm and two hours later he was found badly injured at Kalowti’s home. Babso told The Ledger.Com that she didn’t know why he was visiting with his ex-wife. She said she had met Kalowti before but did not see her often. Babso added that she and her husband had had a very good life.
“He don’t take anything for himself,” she said of her husband. “He come over here, bought a house, bought things for the house, paid the bills and the mortgage. He was a kind person, to do everything for me”, Babso told The Ledger.Com.
Though they lived in a house smaller than their two-storey home in Guyana, Babso told The Ledger.com that the couple had enjoyed socializing with neighbours in Lakeland, listening to music, watching movies and taking care of the yard. They had recently planted some trees behind the house and bought new furniture, neighbours said.
“I don’t know how to explain it. He was a very good man. He was everything for me. I love him and I know he loves me, too,” Babso Bridjnath said.
Bridjnath and Babso have a 15-year-old son.
