A security guard succumbed to several stab wounds hours after being viciously attacked during a robbery at his South Sophia workplace on Saturday night.
Carl Nelson Bollers, 53, of ‘A’ Field, South Sophia died at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) early yesterday morning, police said. Bollers’ reputed wife, Eileen Elexey called ‘Slim’ blamed the lawmen for not responding promptly, saying that had they not taken three and a half hours to arrive, her husband may have survived.
In a statement, the police said that they are investigating the murder. At about 1 am yesterday, Bollers’ body, which bore several stab wounds, was found in the compound of the Mercy Wings Vocational Centre at South Sophia where he was on duty, the police said. He was taken to the GPHC where he succumbed to his injuries. The canteen of the Centre was broken into and a quantity of confectionery stolen, the statement said.
A sobbing Elexey yesterday bemoaned what she termed the uncaring attitude of persons in the Sophia ‘A’ area who refused to help her take Bollers to the hospital even as he lay face down in the compound of the Centre, where he was employed for the last ten years. “People in this life really cruel, ow God why, why they must tek me only companion,” cried Elexey as she knelt on the floor of the modest home she shared with her husband. She said she was told that six gallons of paint and two boxes of biscuits were stolen. “That is what they kill he fuh, six gallons of paint and two box a biscuit,” the woman said as she wailed.
She said that Bollers’ haversack with personal items, including a bank card and a national identification card, was stolen by his attackers. The woman told Stabroek News that information received revealed that her husband was attacked by six youths and it is believed that he may have recognized some of them because of the brutal manner in which they killed him. “If u see what dem do to he, is plenty stab wound to he head and then dem tek he own belt and wrap it round he neck to make sure he dead,” she said adding that her husband also had a wound to his stomach.
According to the mother of one, she last saw her husband on Saturday when she left for work. When she returned he had already left for the school, which is not far from his home, to work the 7 pm to 7 am shift. Elexey said sometime after 11 pm, she received a message from a friend of her husband and she rushed to his workplace with their 13-year-old daughter.
Jump over
“When I reach deh is like nothing ent happen. The place quiet and nobody really on deh road and he friend shine deh light telling me that he lie down on the ground but I didn’t seeing anything,” the woman recounted in the company of several of her friends, who visited to comfort her. Elexey said that the gate of the compound was locked and she decided to jump over the fence to ascertain what was wrong with her husband. “If you ask me now to go back and jump over deh fence I can’t do it, I ent know how I do it but I had to guh and see wah happen to him,” she cried.
Elexey said that persons attempted to prevent her from entering the compound since, according to them; the police and an ambulance were called to the scene. However, she was not prepared to wait until the lawmen arrived. When she jumped over the fence she observed her husband lying on his stomach and there was blood all over. “I guh to he and I say babes is Slim and he didn’t dead. He tell me ‘Babes dem brutal me, dem brutal me…’”
The woman said by that time, more persons had arrived on the scene and she called for help but no one came to her assistance. “I tell dem, and if you see man pun deh road, I say ‘ow I guh fetch he to deh fence and you all collect he and I guh climb over back and carry he to deh hospital in a taxi’ but none a dem, none a dem come fuh help me,” Elexey said. She recalled searching for the keys to open the gate but didn’t’ find them. It is believed that Bollers’ attackers may have taken it with them.
Elexey recounted that she then started to “rock Mercy gate like a mad woman calling for help. If a coulda rip it out I woulda rip it out.” A one point she was told by a bystander not to tamper with evidence but she persisted in rocking the gate as she knew her husband was bleeding to death.
What made matters worse, she said, was the fact that one of her husband’s colleagues came to the scene and when she turned to him for help, he asked her what she wanted him to do. “Imagine (name of the colleague) look me in deh face and ask me wah I want he fuh do, he ent even say well he guh collect me husband over deh fence, is a man he wuk with and is suh he behave,” she recounted.
She said that it was three and a half hours after the incident when the police arrived on the scene. Bollers was placed in the vehicle and she rode with him to the hospital. When they arrived at the medical institution, Bollers was still alive. “But den after deh doctor come and tell me how he lost a lot of blood… and dem lost he, how he dead…”
Meantime, this newspaper was told that residents overheard Bollers screaming and when they peeped out, they could not see anything but after a while, they observed six youths leaving the premises. Two stopped and returned to the location and then went back to their companions before all of them scampered from the location.
“While deh people say deh lost six gallon of paint and two box a biscuit (the resident) say is only one a dem had something in he hand,” Elexey said.
When Stabroek News visited the scene, the gate was padlocked and persons in the area said they knew nothing as they only learnt the man was dead when the police arrived on the scene. According to Elexey, recently the building was broken into and computers were stolen but the administration said they did not want a police investigation. “But Carl say he want he name clear and he went to the police for them to investigate…” she said.
She displayed a plaque Bollers received earlier this year for the ten years service he gave to the school. She said he was always committed to his job. Bollers was very good to her, Elexey sobbed, while those present spoke of his kindness and how mannerly he was to all in the neighbourhood. “He never, never trouble anyone, Carl was a good man,” one woman said.
Bollers’ murder was the latest in a series. Only a week ago, on July 14, the tied-up and battered body of security guard, Ronald Cato was found at an Enterprise, East Coast Demerara (ECD) housing construction site with batteries from three heavy-duty machines missing. Cato, of Lot 58, Non Pariel, ECD, who had begun working at the site on July 1, from all appearances tried to fight off his attackers. Police had said that Cato was found with his hands tied behind his back, his feet tied together and a piece of cloth around his neck. Some persons were arrested following the murder but no one has been charged.
On May 17, a security guard was killed and another man injured, after heavily armed bandits opened fire at a house at Wellington Park, Corentyne around 1:40 am that day. Arjune Gobin, 47, of Bloomfield, Corentyne, was being taken to the scene of the shooting in a Pajero vehicle when bandits opened fire, grazing the back of his head. He was rushed to the Port Mourant Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival
Late last year on December 18, two masked men attacked a female security guard and clobbered her in the head with an iron bar before robbing her. As she bled profusely after the attack, Surujdai Charran managed to telephone for help before losing consciousness. Charran, 41, who was attached to Instant Security Service (ISS), was stationed at Hand-in-Hand Insurance Company, Avenue of the Republic, Georgetown when she was attacked. She later died.
On May 28, 2009, 43-year-old Simone Coleridge who was attached to RK Security Service was tied, gagged, beaten and then strangled while on duty at Uncle Eddie’s Home. Coleridge of Tiger Bay, had been assigned to the senior citizens’ home less than a year before her death.
