Omo Caesar, described as a career thief, was fatally shot during a confrontation with security guards in the Bakewell Factory compound at Triumph, East Coast Demerara, late Wednesday night.
Caesar, 47, sustained a single gunshot wound to the abdomen and managed to scale several fences before collapsing in an alleyway, where he died.
Several stolen items, including bags of sliced bread and tennis rolls, were in Caesar’s possession, ‘C’ Division Commander Gavin Primo told Stabroek News. Primo said the guard who fired the fatal shot is assisting the police with the investigation. Up to late last evening, he was still being questioned at the Beterverwagting Police Station.
Primo said that Caesar, who had no fixed address, was confronted in the compound at Dr Miller Street and “there might have been some confrontation that subsequently led to him [Caesar] being shot at.” The confrontation occurred around 11.50 pm. Primo added that the wounded man managed to get over a fence and died some distance away from where the shooting took place.
Police, in a brief press statement, said the circumstances surrounding the shooting were being investigated.
General Manager of Bakewell Rajindranauth Ganga said the company recently spent a large sum of money to beef up security after frequent thefts from the compound. He recalled that the theft of batteries from vehicles became very frequent and “the guards on duty became more vigilant.”
He explained that at night, many Canter trucks are parked in the compound and the area is well lit. He said that thieves would use the slightest opportunity to scale the fence and steal batteries and in some cases pumps.
Ganga said that since Bakewell’s establishment at the location in 1997, “thieves always in this yard” and very often the company would get information from residents that persons were jumping the fence.
Wednesday’s incident was the first time that someone was physically caught stealing. Ganga said he was told that while conducting checks, the guards spotted someone in the yard. He said that apparently the guards challenged the intruder, who was shot in the process. He opined that Caesar panicked on seeing the guards, who told him to stop. “I don’t think that he was fighting the guards, I think that he just panicked,” he said. Ganga said it was sad that a life was lost.
Stabroek News was later shown the spot at the northern side of the compound where the confrontation took place. After being shot, Caesar jumped up on a septic tank and scaled the fence. He had to jump over at least two more fences to reach the alleyway, where his body was later discovered.
‘A known thief’
Meanwhile, residents said Caesar was a known thief and a menace to the Triumph and Beterverwagting (BV) communities. One woman accused him of breaking into her home some time back and stealing a gas bottle. According to another woman, the man was a thief for years and had even served jail time for it. She said that some time back he was driving a minibus owned by a woman from another village.
Caesar’s mother Jocelyn, had been at her wits end to understand his behaviour. On Sunday last, she said, she had taken him to the BV Police Station over a theft from her home earlier in the year. She said she “put him out in May,” after the incident. “I beg de inspector [on Sunday] to send he to Camp Street before somebody beat he or shoot he,” she said.
She recalled that her grandson had seen Caesar on the road earlier that day and told him that the police wanted him in connection with the robbery. According to Jocelyn, Caesar pulled out an ice pick and placed it to the lad’s armpit and said, “‘Is me police want? Ah gon show you who police want!’”
A scuffle ensued and Caesar was badly beaten and taken to his mother’s home, bleeding from his forehead. Jocelyn said she immediately took him to the police station.
The woman said she learned after his death that the police had released Caesar on Wednesday after he told them that he would behave himself and show his mother where he had her stolen items.
Jocelyn said that drug use turned her son into what he was and sending him to rehab had not helped, since as soon as he came out of institutional care “he start fuh smoke up again.” She said many times she was stopped in the street and told that he was dressed in dark coloured clothing and stealing people’s belongings. “I know he use to break people place and police know that too but he and dem is friend. They use to get he cleaning the place, weeding de yard, doing errands for them and whenever he catch people animals he does get a lil raise,” she said.
The woman alleged that it was his friendship with the police that kept him out of jail. She recalled that Caesar had stolen some items from a man’s shop and was caught at the Mon Repos market selling them. He showed the police where the remaining items were and was released, she added.
“Is not like he was a good boy, he was a bandit,” she said. “I glad he gone ’cause I can sleep when de night come. You think I had it easy with he? When I get the message, I said Father God, Thank You!”
Jocelyn added that she would not be shedding any tears for her son, who was the fourth of her ten children. She said that most her children are overseas and they want to return for the funeral. However, she has advised them against it and instead suggested that they send money to fix up the lower flat of her home, which Caesar had destroyed. “You see, they love him… we tried,” she stressed.
She said that less than five months ago she had buried her husband, but Caesar did not attend the funeral. “He smoke up the day of the funeral and woke up the next day,” she recalled.
