Several persons have been questioned as the police continue to probe the murder of well-known Guyhoc Park mechanic Reginald Atherly, who was shot on Saturday when bandits invaded his home.
This is according to a police source, who told Stabroek News that while several were detained and questioned in relation to the crime, no one is presently in custody.
Atherly, known as ‘Reggie’ and ‘Diesel Boss’, 44, was shot and killed around 4 am last Saturday during a scuffle with two gunmen, who invaded his Lot G26 Guyhoc Park home, in what appeared to be an attempted robbery.
He sustained several gunshot wounds about his body, including to his abdomen and was pronounced dead on arrival to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Atherly and his family were asleep when the gunmen invaded their home.
He confronted the men and was shot as a result. The men escaped, empty-handed.
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.
The dead man’s wife, Roxanne Crawford, had explained to this newspaper that she and Atherly 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,” the woman had recalled.
Crawford said that upon realising that the men were bandits, she screamed in a bid to alert neighbours.
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 had said.
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.
