Charlestown man wanted over fatal ‘game bird’ shooting

The Guyana Police Force yesterday issued a wanted bulletin for the man alleged to have shot and killed McDoom, East Bank Demerara resident Abiola Eddie-Barker last month, after she intervened in a row he had with her son over a game bird.

Mark Assing, called ‘Jessy,’ 42, whose last address was given as Lot 41 Sussex Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, is wanted by police for Eddie-Barker’s murder.

On June 20, last month, Eddie-Barker, her son, Martin Barker, 21, and a cousin, Lesha George, 33, were shot during an argument with a neighbor, who had accused Barker of stealing his bird. Eddie-Barker succumbed on July 2nd at the Georgetown Public Hospital, where she had been admitted since the incident in a vegetative state and hooked up to a life support machine.

Mark Assing

Eyewitnesses had told Stabroek News that the incident stemmed from an argument over a game bird that Martin Barker was holding as he was returning home. His neighbour, Assing, they said, came out of his yard and accused the young man of stealing his bird. They said Barker, who rears birds for cockfighting, vehemently denied that the bird was his neighbour’s and even attempted to show him features on the bird substantiating his ownership. The man flew into a rage, dashed into his home and returned with a gun and a knife. Prompted by his wife to shoot Barker, Assing opened fire, hitting the three persons. He then fled the scene but was reportedly seen by members of the dead woman’s family in the Albouystown area sometime after “walking ‘willy-nilly’ without a care in the world.”

Police said Assing the wanted man is of mixed ancestry and anyone who has information that may lead to his arrest is asked to contact the nearest police station. Police can be contacted on telephone numbers 226-7065, 227-1149, 225-8196, 225-6411, and 911 and all information, they say, will be treated with strict confidence.