The mother of the young woman who died after being dragged by a car driven by a fleeing bandit on Friday night wants an “eye for an eye” for the gruesome manner in which her daughter’s life was snuffed out.
Demerara Bank employee Sheema Mangar, 20, of Mon Repos died early Saturday morning at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital as a result of injuries sustained which included, a broken arm, leg, shattered pelvis, head injuries and a ruptured spleen, according to her relatives following a post-mortem examination yesterday. Reports say the woman had attempted to stop a bandit from driving off by getting in front of the vehicle he had entered after snatching her cellular phone. The man then ran her down in his bid to escape.
Mangar had been awaiting transportation near the Bedford Methodist Church at Camp Street and North Road when the incident occurred and she was dragged from that junction to thee Church and Camp streets intersection before she was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Mangar’s mother, Radica Thakoor told Stabroek News yesterday that it was too brutal an act to escape the ultimate punishment.
“That man should be hanged if anybody find him. I’m not talking on behalf of just my daughter, I talking on behalf of everybody daughter as well because this could happen to other people. No one knows what I’m going through. When I close my eyes in the night I see my daughter lying in the mortuary,” the grief-stricken woman said.
Since the story broke questions have arisen about the motive for the incident and the plausibility of a bandit using a car to steal a cellular phone. Lalbachan Mangar, the dead woman’s father had told Stabroek News on Saturday that they learnt the bandit jumped into a waiting taxi.
“Why somebody would hire a taxi, have the taxi wait on them just for a phone then run all the way to catch that taxi? That’s really strange. Nobody don’t hire a taxi to steal a phone,” his wife said yesterday.
Also yesterday, the father said the police had told them that they knew the car and that it had been used in several other robberies. An eyewitness had described the vehicle as being between a “fawn and gray.” There has been no official word from the police on Mangar’s death to date.
Thakoor described her daughter as a loving and easygoing adding that she was studying to become an accountant. She added that Sheema had not behaved any differently in the days leading up to her death and that she could think of no reason why someone would want her daughter dead.
“She very, very friendly. If you go anywhere, to the coworkers at the bank, the churches and the village, no problem at all with people,” the mother said. “At the age of 15 I had her. I used to had to sell 100 sweeties to buy a tin of Lactogen for her. Sacrifice our life to give her the education just to let her go and have what I didn’t have.”
But despite her grief the woman seemed determined that her daughter’s death would not become just another statistic.
“We need to call on this government that we should have more capability and assured security in this country because this will not go down like this. The President should not see this go down, an innocent child working her way up, this should not go down without justice.
“What this country turn to? For a phone? Your own phone that you work so hard for, you can’t have something you achieve in your life? What are we working for? We gotta be always thinking somebody is going to take it from us. Why we must live like that?”
While she was at a loss as to why her daughter acted the way she did Thakoor called for people not to be cowed by situations.
“It’s her phone, she has a right. If people don’t stand up for what’s right in this country everybody will jus walk over you. We jus tek everything for granted.”
According to Thakoor, “a lifetime of heartbreak” awaits her family now.
A workmate who chose not to be identified said Sheema was an easygoing person who was always willing to help others, a trait she displayed up to the fateful night.
“Friday I had a late transaction and she was the one who helped me and we talked before she left. Then we were still at work when we got the call from Public [GPHC] that she was there unconscious and everybody just left what they were doing.”
The young woman also expressed disbelief at the report of Mangar’s actions in trying to thwart the
criminal saying that she was not an aggressive person.
“When somebody gets robbed they’re left dumbfounded. Why would she run in front a car? That I can’t understand. She’s not the type of person to run in front a car and involve her life. I don’t think she would ever do something like that.”
She said it was an action other employees who had dealt with Mangar on a daily basis also found difficult to fathom.
The young woman was also unable to say if there was anyone who would have wanted to harm Mangar and appealed to anyone who may have information leading to the capture of the killer to come forward. “You tell me at 6.30 nobody out there saw the registration number of the car; that is impossible. Someone had to see something. People should realise they need to come forward. That was just heartless.”
She revealed that the bank staff were so shaken that it was difficult to deal with customers yesterday. The bank yesterday issued a statement calling the incident “horrible and atrocious. “This is a callous act of brutality one human committed on another human being and should be condemned by the whole society as it portrays Guyana as a country where human life is as cheap as a cell phone,” the statement said. “Life is sacred which all can take but none can give. Can these perpetrators of this brutal act return the life of this young girl?”
The bank also expressed condolences on behalf of its staff to Mangar’s family.
Sheema had been employed at Demerara Bank as a cashier in the Treasury Department for the past two years. Meanwhile, the PNCR also extended condolences to the woman’s family and friends. “The manner of the robbery and the subsequent barbaric act heralds a new level of criminality which deserves swift and condign action on the part of the security forces and other law enforcement authorities,” the party statement read.
It called on the Commissioner of Police to ensure that the perpetrator does not go unpunished “This banditry must not be allowed to become a norm in our already troubled country,” it concluded. Sheema, who is survived by her parents and younger brother Jason, would have celebrated her 21st birthday a month from today.
