– following murder of cheese vendor

FOLLOWING the brutal murder of well-known cheese vendor, Troy Ramalho, earlier this month, vendors at the Bourda Market have arranged for private security to complement that which is provided by the City Constabulary Department.

Georgetown Mayor, Patricia Chase-Green announced at Monday’s statutory meeting that a group of the vendors visited her office lately to inform her of their plans.

According to her, the delegation expressed that they have founded a 25-member policing group and that the plan is to conduct regular patrols around the market at regular intervals.

The vendors related that the shooting was a “very scary” experience for them, Chase-Green reported, and they have since approached the Constabulary in an effort to work along with those officers.

Councillor Bishram Kuppen informed councillors that he was aware that the vendors hired three armed security guards because they said they have no confidence in the City Constabulary but Chase-Green responded by saying that the team which visited her said nothing about confidence and merely referred to the fact that there were inadequate officers on the ground.

The area the vendors plan to overlook is between Alexander and Bourda Streets.
Chief Constable Andrew Foo informed that following the shooting incident, plain clothes officers are now at the market.

Town Clerk Royston King offered that the issues resulting from private security working along with the constabulary will have to be worked out. He also added that the City Council may have to move more towards the use of security cameras because manpower is very limited.

Meanwhile, a 34-year-old taxi driver of Eccles, East Bank Demerara, has admitted under interrogation to shuttling the three men who were responsible for the murder of the market vendor.

Ramalho, of Lot 11 North Road, Lacytown, Georgetown, was shot around 23:00hrs on August 15, 2018, after he resisted the three men who were robbing him.

The 45-year-old man who was well known for selling cheese and eggs in front of ‘Rambarrans’ on Robb Street, in close proximity to Bourda Street, was doing what he had been doing for over two decades, when the three bandits, one armed with a gun, ambushed him.

Reports indicate that police, acting on intelligence, arrested the taxi driver in Buxton, East Coast Demerara, on Saturday.

He reportedly told the police he picked up the men at Demico, Stabroek Georgetown and they had asked him to drive to Robb Street, Georgetown where the men identified their victim.

The bandits, known by the aliases ‘Digout’, ‘Roy’, and ‘Bucky,’ are being sought by police.