The police have detained one person for questioning about the murder of clothes vendor Leon Hescott, who was shot and killed on Friday evening on Middle Road, La Penitence, Georgetown.
Police spokesman Jairam Ramlakhan, in a press release, said the man who was detained was being questioned up to yesterday afternoon.
Sunday Stabroek was informed that the police are treating Hescott’s death as a robbery/murder since a quantity of foreign currency was taken from him.
The police said that 36-year-old Hescott, known as “Dudu,” of French Guiana, was shot to his head around 7pm.
Hescott resided in French Guiana with his wife and children.
The police added that their enquiries revealed that he travelled to Guyana on Thursday to renovate his father’s house, located at 155 Middle Road, La Penitence, and was scheduled to return home yesterday.
According to information received by this newspaper at the crime scene, Hescott was seated in a chair and was eating when a man rode up on a bicycle and dealt him a punch before shooting him.
The police noted that one of his siblings said that about 3 pm on Friday, Hescott left home with a sum of foreign currency and she later received information that he was shot and robbed.
Residents had related to this newspaper that they heard multiple gunshots in the area prior to discovering it was Hescott who was shot.
They indicated that the police were called immediately after the shooting occurred but they did not arrive at the crime scene for quite some time.
Rosemary Hescott, the dead man’s sister, yesterday told reporters that it remains unclear what might have led to his killing. She explained that on Thursday, Hescott told a group of men who normally lime in the yard at the property where he was shot that he didn’t want anyone there once he was not around. “Me bruddah (Hescott) seh the day in the yard that he don’t want nobody in he yard when he is not around. He seh duh the Thursday and the Friday they shoot he,” Rosemary related.
She said Leon had not been around for a while. “He come back fuh we cast the yard and suh and build septic tank ’cause me and he talk about it and suh,” Rosemary said. The woman said the family is calling for justice.
“It’s sad but you done know yuh gah mek yuh self strong….Anybody want justice fah they family. Nobody shouldn’t take life,” she added.
Hescott was known to the police. In 2007, he was charged and remanded to prison over a $90 million diamond heist.
He is the fifth Hescott brother to be shot dead.
His brother, Dave Hescott, was shot and killed in April 2007. He was found lying in the Le Repentir Cemetery. Another brother, Shawn Hescott, was gunned down not far from his home in November of 2006, while sitting on a horse cart. Winston Hescott was shot and killed by the police in 1996 and Adam Hescott was also shot by the police in 1997.
