Mother of nine shot dead on Brusche Dam

  - eyewitnesses claim police were the killers

By Dale Andrews and Nadia Guyadeen 

An alleged confrontation between the police and gunmen in the Buxton/Friendship area resulted in the slaying of a 47-year-old mother of nine.

Warrant Officer Freed  Coldingen man chopped in head

Donna Herod, of Vigilance South, East Coast Demerara, was shot above her right eye shortly after picking up two of her children from school at around midday yesterday.

Her body lay on the Brusche Dam clutching her daughter's lunch bag, a scene that sent villagers into shock and anger even as the police continued their operation.

A police press release stated that at about 11:55 hours, police, acting on information that a number of wanted men were hiding in a house, launched an operation at Friendship, East Coast Demerara.

According to the police statement, the ranks had crossed over the Embankment going south when they came under gunfire, forcing them to return fire.

As they continued moving towards the identified targets, the police ranks came under fire again and exchanged gunfire while giving chase behind 11 men who ran into the bushes in the backlands area.

The police stated that they subsequently received information that a woman had been shot north of the Embankment.

The woman was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Speaking to Kaieteur News shortly after the incident, Divisional Commander Leroy Brumell said that the gunmen were in a house and somehow the men were alerted that the police were on to them.

“There was an exchange of gunfire and I understand that somebody got injured. I don't know if it is the police or a civilian but somebody got injured,” Brumell said.

At the time he was unaware that the woman was already dead.

“The men ran out the house and scattered,” Brumell added.

However, the police's version is extremely different from eyewitnesses' accounts of the events that led to Herod's death.

Residents are adamant that the woman died from the police bullets, since, according to them, there were no gunmen in the area.

“Who de shooting at dem? We ain't see nobody shooting at dem. Dem walk through dis yard and dey start cussin and shooting. As soon as they jump out de vehicle dey start shooting,” one resident said.

The resident claimed that shortly after the shooting started, she saw Herod lying dead on Brusche Dam.

Herod's sister, Joan Waterton, said that she had encouraged her sister to collect her children from school since there were rapid gunshots in the village.

“When we go, me say Donna don't walk de line top. She go till around de street to avoid dese people. I was going with her and something say don't walk on the line. Is a good thing I tek dat woman child from she (after she was shot),” Waterton told this newspaper.

Eleven-year-old Steve Grant, the dead woman's son, who was with her when she was shot, is sure that it was the police who shot his mother.

He recalled that they were on their way home when the police opened fire.

“Me and me mother and me li'l sister de coming home; she been holding we hand. De police shoot and one (bullet) hit a brick and de other one knock me mother in she head,” Grant said.

He said that a male resident pulled him into a yard and told him not to go back on the road.

“Nobody else was shooting; it was the police dem alone,” another eyewitness stated.

Herod's husband, Morton Grant, was in Georgetown when he got the tragic news.

According to Grant, he was in a minibus at the East Coast Demerara bus park when a young Buxton resident informed him that his wife had been shot.

“She told me to stay quiet and when you go home you will know. She said that Donna get shoot in she eye,” Grant said.

He said that when he arrived at Brusche Dam, the police had already left with his wife's body.

When this newspaper arrived on the scene, the police were in battle-ready position along Brusche Dam and Friendship Road .

At that time, not many persons were aware that the woman's body with the hands still clutching a lunch bag was lying on Brusche Dam.

It was only after two reporters from this newspaper began taking photographs of the woman's body that residents ventured from their homes.

But even as the ranks were retreating, this newspaper observed when one of the ranks fell and accidentally discharged several rounds, which almost killed his colleagues. That burst sent everyone, including the reporters, scurrying for cover.

A senior police source said that the police will be conducting an investigation to determine who shot Herod.

Yesterday's incident brought back memories of the fatal shooting of Tshaka Blair, who was killed by ranks of the Target Special Squad, sparking a murderous crime wave in the Buxton/Friendship, Lower East Coast Demerara and city for almost three years.

During that time, several policemen were targeted and killed in what was an apparent retaliation to Blair's death.

Since then the Joint Services has established a base aback of Buxton with the aim of sanitizing the area of criminal elements, who are believed to be hiding out there.

However, despite the presence of the Joint Services in the Buxton area, no high profile criminal has been arrested.

Many residents described yesterday's police operation as haphazard and not properly coordinated.

They questioned why the police had not activated the Joint Services contingent which is located at the back of the village, where the 11 men reportedly fled.

It was only until hours after the first incident that ranks from the Joint Services went into the Buxton backlands in search of the men whom the police claimed shot at them.

Up to late last evening there were no reports of any capture of the gunmen nor had the police revealed if any weapons or spent shells were retrieved.

Meanwhile, relatives were contemplating how to break the news of Herod's death to two of her children who are in Barbados .

They have now become resigned to the fact that they will now have to take care of her seven other children, the youngest of whom is four years old.

Wednesday 09-05-2007