Execution-style killing of waitress baffles family

Aug 26, 2014 News

– children view recording of mom’s murder

The children of waitress Deborah Blackman yesterday viewed a recording of their mother’s apparent execution at the

Deborah Blackman

hands of a young gunman, and it left them both shocked and baffled as to why she was slain.
One of Mrs. Blackman’s daughters said that a young Chinese national, whose parents own the Chinese Delicious Restaurant, allowed them to see the recording that was made by a security camera in the premises.
The recording shows a young man, wearing a black cap with a red peak, shooting Blackman, without any apparent attempt to rob the premises. But according to the children, they know of no reason why anyone would have wanted to kill their mother.
“That is what we are trying to figure out; who would want to kill her and for what,” one distraught daughter told Kaieteur News.
“My mother doesn’t own her own house, she doesn’t have jewels, she is not a rich woman, she doesn’t have life insurance, she doesn’t have anything for anyone to want to kill her for, just her life and children. It’s very shocking.”
Crime Chief Leslie James told Kaieteur News yesterday that investigators were looking at several motives, but declined to say what they were and whether robbery had been ruled out.
Kaieteur News viewed part of the security camera footage, which showed a man in a black cap, with red peak, going up to the counter, which is barred off from the dining area, and apparently placing an order. Two other men then come to the counter, and one of them gives Blackman a $5,000 note. The footage shows the apparently nervous men constantly glancing around.
According to police sources who viewed the recording, Blackman, of Critchlow Circle, Tucville, placed a box of food on the counter.  The men reportedly walked out of the restaurant, but the one wearing the cap returned to the counter and shot Blackman in the neck and shoulder.
Police said that the men arrived at the restaurant on a CG motorcycle. Investigators recovered two warheads and a bullet casing from the scene.
The 48-year-old waitress had worked at the restaurant, located in D’urban Street, for some eleven years. Her children, and customers who knew her, described Blackman as a pleasant individual who was dedicated to her job.

The restaurant remained closed yesterday

A daughter recalled that her mother would leave for work at 10. 30 hrs and return home after midnight. “My mother loved her job, even though she knew how much risk it was.”
Kaieteur News was told that bandits robbed Blackman and the owners last March, after kicking open a door leading to the area behind the counter. A daughter said that the waitress had planned to leave her job after expressing fear for her safety.
The relative said that after that incident, the proprietors would leave a door behind the counter open to allow Blackman to secure herself in the event of a robbery. That door was reportedly locked on Saturday night when the killers struck. Kaieteur News was told that the proprietor’s son was in a secure section of the premises when the gunmen shot Blackman, and took several minutes to emerge from the area.
Pointing out that the proprietors could have done much more to ensure their mother’s safety; one daughter suggested that someone should have been constantly monitoring the security camera in the building.
And despite her long years of service, it appears that Deborah Blackman’s children will receive no compensation for her brutal death on the job.
“They (the owners) already say they don’t have money to give the family. We asked them and they already said no,” a daughter said.
The proprietor’s son reportedly told the family that his parents are overseas, but that his father is returning next month.
Deborah Blackman’s family is making arrangements to have her body taken to Berbice, where she will be laid to rest.