Thirty-six-year-old Marcyn King, a mother of three and a supervisor at Rentokil Initial Guyana Limited was shot at point blank range in a poorly lit section of Republic Street, a route she used whenever she made her own way home. At other times, the woman was picked up from work by her husband.
The circumstances surrounding exactly how the woman was shot were not clear up to press time last night, since varying reports were given by persons at the scene. Some said a car drove up alongside the woman and fired shots, while others recounted seeing a man exiting the vehicle, speaking a few words to the woman and then shooting her.
The police said in a statement last night that the shooting occurred around 5.40 pm. The statement said a white car drove up beside the woman and a man exited and discharged several rounds from a firearm hitting the woman about the body.
King was shot twice in the chest and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital, this newspaper learned.
The police statement said the force would not tolerate the killing of innocent persons and all efforts would be made to arrest and prosecute the perpetrator.
When this newspaper arrived on the scene around 7.10 pm, several residents lined the poorly-lit street, a few of them without umbrellas even though it was raining.
A woman whose husband assisted others to lift King into the vehicle told this newspaper that she was inside her home with her grandchildren and they heard the sounds, which sounded like firecrackers and did not venture out. However, when her husband looked out he saw persons gathering in the street and took a closer look. She said her husband then ventured out and assisted others to place King in a vehicle.
Heavy rains all day had caused flooding on both sides of the street and King fell in water after she was shot.
Two police vehicles were on the scene while this newspaper was there and some persons at the scene, including a pre-teen boy, were taken to the police station for questioning. The woman’s husband, who was also on the scene briefly, was also taken to the police station.
Prior to this, he was overheard saying that he was at home when a friend went running towards the house, shouting to him to get his vehicle to take his wife to the hospital since she had just been shot.
Some young men, who said they had been in the adjoining street chatting when the incident occurred, said they had not heard any gunshots, but someone went and informed them that something had happened.
“When he tell we dat we came running down the road, because we say must be somebody get rob and we coming fuh share licks, not knowing when we reach and we look down we see a woman lie down pun the road,” one of the young men recounted.
He said by that time persons had started to venture out of their homes and the woman was placed in the vehicle. “The place was getting lil dark,” he said.
At the woman’s home last evening, her mother, Margaret Rawlins, said she had gone over to the nearby shop to make a purchase when she heard the sound, but figured that it was firecrackers.
“Then I saw this boy came running and told my son-in-law to bring his vehicle and come and take his wife to the hospital,” she said. The woman said that it appeared as though her daughter sustained two gunshot wounds and was bleeding through her nose and mouth.
The woman said she last saw her daughter when she left for work yesterday morning. “She wouldn’t usually come home so late everyday, but on Mondays in particular she worked a bit late… She would come off the bus and then walk in the piece and come home,” she said, with a hand over her eyes.
Another relative in the home showed this newspaper King’s bag and her belongings and said that nothing was missing from it.
One of the woman’s sons had also run to the scene after hearing that his mother was shot, but was later taken away by a relative.
