A well-known Guyhoc Park, East La Penitence mechanic was shot and killed in the wee hours of yesterday morning during a scuffle with two gunmen, who invaded his home in what appeared to be an attempted robbery.
Reginald Atherly, 44, known as ‘Reggie’ and ‘Diesel Boss,’ was shot several times about his body, including to his abdomen, during the attack, which occurred around 4 am at his Lot G26 Guyhoc Park home. He was later pronounced dead on arrival to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Crime Chief (ag) Michael Kingston, when contacted for a comment yesterday, told Sunday Stabroek that several persons were being questioned up to yesterday afternoon and investigators were checking the area for possible CCTV footage.
He noted that their investigation revealed that Atherly and his family were asleep when two armed men invaded their home. “He (Atherly) attacked them and he was shot,” Kingston said.
He noted that an alarm was raised, after which the gunmen escaped, empty-handed.
Sunday Stabroek understands that the gunmen also concealed parts of their faces in a bid to hide their identities.
It is suspected that the gunmen gained entry into the house by retrieving keys through a window situated on the western side of the house. They did not demand any cash or jewellery from the family.
When Sunday Stabroek visited the home yesterday morning, members of Atherly’s family and his neighbours were still trying to come to grips with his death. They said the murder had left them in a state of shock.
Atherly’s wife, Roxanne Crawford, told Sunday Stabroek that she and him were asleep on their bed, while their nine-year-old daughter was on another bed in the room.
“…I was between sleep and wake… it got this short cut right hay (on the western side of the house), so if anybody pass you will hear a talking or something. I hear like some men talking so I open meh eye fah check the clock same time on the basket and when I open meh eye I see these two men with gun aiming at me. So I didn’t realise, you know, like I never expect fah open me eye and see two person aiming this gun at me… one ah them got they finger to he mouth because is I wake up, nobody else ain’t wake up,” she recalled.
Crawford said that upon realising that the men were bandits, she screamed in a bid to alert neighbours. “I know they (bandits) does kill yuh anyway. If they rob yuh, they still does kill yuh. So I know when I scream, I alerting people. At least they gon’ panic and leave,” she said.
She noted that her scream also woke Atherly. “So he (Atherly) fly up and he run with he hand open and when I scream they (the gunmen) end up running and he run behind them, ducking suh, running, coming and shots start fire,” the woman stated.
Crawford added that she grabbed her daughter from her bed and told her “Bandits! Go under the bed!”
“…And by time I hear the shots stop fire, I see he (Atherly) got one ah them. He lay down behind the door, chack the door and he gah one ah them (gunman) by the door. I don’t know if is he hand, he foot or wah he gah but he had one ah them squeezing them suh and he lay down flat pun the ground,” she further explained.
Crawford said she ran for a cutlass from under the bed for Atherly. “…Whilst grabbing the cutlass now, I realised I ain’t see he (Atherly) moving and the man gone out he hand… he just deh on the ground. So I drop the cutlass and I go to he and I shake he like and I run back and I seh ‘Angel, daddy like he get shoot,’” Crawford recounted.
While Atherly had one of the gunmen on the ground, the other had already escaped.
Crawford believes that the gunmen were in the house for a while before she awakened. She recalled that prior to the attack, her daughter tried waking her up to inform her that someone had moved her fan but she didn’t pay the child any attention since she assumed it was Atherly who woke up to use the washroom and moved it.
She said that the child also told her that she heard persons talking in the kitchen.
Call for help
Crawford said she spent approximately 15 minutes calling for help from the time she noticed the men in the house. “So I running and I looking fah phone fah call the ambulance, fah call 911. I looking, hollering… I couldn’t find phone. So I start screaming, ‘Murder! Murder! Help! Help!’”
She said she even pushed her head out of the door since Atherly’s body was blocking the door and she called for Atherly’s mother, who lives in a house in front of his.
“I seh, ‘Ms Atherly, yuh aint coming? Yuh son get shoot! Yuh ain’t coming?’ Nobody ain’t coming. They tek long, long, long and I start shooting fah help and a man next door is wah come over and ask wah happen?” Crawford said.
Atherly’s mother said she heard the screams but didn’t know it was coming from her son’s house until Crawford called out to her directly.
Like other neighbours, the woman said she thought it was another resident who was being attacked.
“When I heard the screams I thought was the girl at the shop there. So me and my daughter get up and I seh like this girl getting beat up or like bandits in by she, not knowing is straight at the back of me,” the woman said.
“Yuh hearing bullets, bullets, bullets. About 15 and I decided to stand up on the bed top now and peep through the beam and then I hear she (Crawford) hollering now ‘Ms Atherly yuh son get shoot,’” she added.
Crawford said for the past two weeks Atherly has been between his workshop and that of his brother’s in South Ruimveldt since his brother is currently overseas.
