Linden youths killed by police laid to rest

Apr 21, 2025 News

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─ relatives renew calls for justice

Kaieteur News- While the rest of Guyana indulged in the Easter holiday festivities, the town of Linden remained in mourning on Sunday as hundreds dressed in red bade farewell to 21-year-old Ronaldo Peters and 32-year-old Keon Fogenay.

The friends were slain hours apart by police on the April 7 and 8 respectively. On Sunday, they were laid to rest as opposition leaders, Nigel Hughes and Aubrey Norton supported relatives’ call for justice, noting that there must be an independent probe.

Loved ones paid tribute and tears flowed as they reflected on the lives of Peters and Fogenay.

Peters’ cousin said his life was cut-short. He said Ronaldo had plans to see his daughter grow up and complete a house he had already started building to create a life for himself and young family.

Fogenay’s relatives related he was a former part-time worker with the government and did multiple jobs to support his family. At the time of his death, he was working with Hard Rock Café at Movietowne in Georgetown.

Chaos erupted as some persons who were close to Fogenay were heard wailing and refusing to move. His male friends held on to his body and some were heard crying out “justice must be served; look how they kill you out!”

It was a similar reaction with the relatives and friend of Peters. At one point, a few persons had to be carried out as they fainted. Closing the caskets proved to be difficult for the pallbearers, as prying fingers of patrons clutched on for dear life in grief.

As the crowd moved on, added wails of grief and anguish filled the air as persons fought to come to grips that that was the last time that they would see their loved ones.

As the viewing came to an end, the caskets were hoisted onto the shoulders of young men and carried in a procession to the cemetery, with patrons shouting “We want justice; we want justice today; we ain’t going to wait till tomorrow,” while ‘Gone Away’ by popular dancehall artist Alkaline, blasted in the background.

The pallbearers passed by the crime scenes and took a moment with the casket at the spots where the young men were gunned down, this resulted in an eruption of cries from relative and loved ones.

Meanwhile Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton said the wanton killing of young Guyanese men by rogue members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) must end. Addressing the mammoth crowd, Norton said such killings have been ongoing in Guyana for far too long.

“You see the trend that we have now. The trend started years ago, but it continues. We saw first, Yohance Douglas. In the last four years, we saw the death of Orin Boston, then we saw the death of Quinton Bacchus. And now we are faced with a similar situation again.”

He noted that none of those cases has seen justice. He said it is important for all to fight.

“The government has the tendency to talk about compensating. Let it be clear, you can’t compensate for death. You might help those who are alive, but no one can compensate anybody for life.

Leader of the Alliance For Change, Nigel Hughes told relatives at the funeral, “You have to insist as one of the basic minimum requirements they must establish an independent institution to investigate the police…The Guyana Police Force cannot investigate these murders”.

He recalled that Linden faced a similar situation in 2012 when three men, Ivan Lewis, Shemroy Bouyea and Ron Somerset were killed during protests.

“You never really got justice in 2012. You got compensation but you didn’t get justice.”, Hughes said as he noted that there should have been an independent body investigating those cases.

On April 8, the mining town descended into chaos after Peters was shot dead by a member of the Guyana Police Force (GPF).

Residents dubbed the shooting death a murder even as the police officer responsible for Peters’ death claimed that his gun accidentally went off. The police’s claim was disputed by surveillance footage, which showed him running behind Peters with a gun. Shortly after, the police officer was seen fetching the injured man by his clothes.

As the video footage circulated, residents of the mining town, especially from Peters’ community, were angered. The situation quickly sparked protests, which descended into chaos, resulting in the death of another youth identified as 32-year-old Keon Fogenay, also known as ‘Dan’, a father of four, the youngest being around 3 years old.

Roads were blocked, bringing motor vehicular traffic in the town to a standstill. Several protestors and police officers were injured in violent clashes. The protest began at Half Mile, Wismar, Linden, where Peters was killed, but stretched across the Wismar Bridge. Rubber pellets were fired along with tear gas as Lindeners blocked the bridge with burning tyres. Some protestors say live rounds were also fired into the crowd – one of them killing Fogenay.

One protester alleged that the rank who killed Fogenay during the protest was firing tear gas at the angry crowd, but reportedly stopped what he was doing and pulled out his service weapon and shot the young man who was a neighbour and close friend of the Peters.

Protestors reportedly recovered the spent shells as evidence. Meanwhile, speaking with Kaieteur News, Fogenay’s brother, Ronel (only name given), said that Fogenay was killed 15 minutes after arriving from Georgetown. “He was not even at the protest, he did just passing through,” Ronel claimed while recounting that he was operating a taxi when he heard that someone was shot at the protests. At the time, he did not know it was his brother, but only later found out when he decided to “go and see who is the victim.”

Fogenay, according to his relatives, was shot in the head. A cellphone recorded video of persons rushing him to the hospital showed him bleeding from a wound around the left eye. News of his death triggered violence, with protestors attacking police officers, forcing them into retreat.

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Caption: Scenes from the funeral proceedings.

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• Aubrey Norton, Keon Fogenay, Linden, Nigel Hughes, Ronaldo Peters

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