Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 08, 2009 News
Tuesday, August 8, 2006, will always be remembered as the day on which one of the most dastardly attacks on press freedom occurred.
Around 22:10 hrs that day, six Kaieteur News pressmen were at the company’s Eccles, East Bank Demerara printery when a group of misguided young men, some as young as 15, brandishing guns, stormed the compound.
They shot the lone security guard, Julian De Grace, 66, at the entrance, and then entered the building before the employees within could shut the door.
Pressmen Mark Maikoo, Chetram ‘Boyo’ Persaud, Richard Stewart, Eion Wegman, Shazim Mohamed and Kamechan Harripersaud had heard the gunshots and had secreted themselves in a washroom.
But on the gunmen’s orders, the men, except for Harripersaud, eventually emerged from their hiding place. They were all shot in the back of the head, execution-style.
Wegman, Stewart, Persaud and Maikoo, died instantly, while Shazim Mohamed, died a day later at the Georgetown Hospital without regaining consciousness.
Although devastated by the deaths of their colleagues, Kaieteur News staff opted to print the following day’s edition in honour of the fallen pressmen.
A few days later, Jermaine Charles, called ‘Skinny’, 19, was charged with 10 counts of murder, two counts of unlawful possession and one count of attempted murder. His alleged accomplices, Dwight Da Silva and Quincy Evans, called ‘Jimmy Dog”, were charged with seven and six counts of murder respectively. A juvenile known as “Nasty Man” was also charged.
Charles escaped during his trial, but was subsequently killed, along with Rondel ‘Fineman’ Rawlins by members of the Joint Services.
The preliminary inquiry into the killings is still ongoing. There will be no memorial service this year, but this morning the staff will observe a moment of silence to honour their fallen colleagues.
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