THE owner of the Regent Multiplex Store on Regent Street, Georgetown, was killed early yesterday morning when four unmasked gunmen opened fire on him moments after he entered his West Coast Demerara home. Ganesh Ramlal, 48, also called ‘Boyo’, of ‘C’ La Jalousie, West Coast Demerara was pronounced dead on arrival at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
His deeply distraught relatives told the Guyana Chronicle that Ramlal had left home earlier in the evening to attend a wake at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara and, on his way home, apparently met some friends and they went to a Bar-B-Cue at Cornelia Ida.

Tragedy struck shortly after midnight when Ramlal returned home from the Bar-B-Cue and was confronted by four gunmen. It would appear that the men had been staking him out and arrived at his home where they awaited his arrival.
When the businessman arrived home he entered the building through a door on the lower flat of the house, took his shoes and shirt off, then exited the living room through a back door, and was heading to the lavatory area on that floor when the men ambushed him and opened fire.
He received about seven gunshot wounds to the head, chest and elsewhere, a relative said. After realising that he was under attack, Ramlal screamed, shouting “Thief, thief!” loud enough to alert his wife Monica and their 18-year-old daughter that he was in danger so they should not venture out.
On hearing him scream his wife and two young adults who were in the home began shouting frantically to a relative who lives just across the road from them, and word quickly went around. But they dared not venture out of their homes at the moment. Calls were hurriedly made to nearby police stations and 911. One relative, recalling the response from the police, yesterday expressed disgust at the response and general attitude of the police. She said that when the police rank finally answered the phone and the caller indicated what was happening, the police woman said: “Wait leh me get a pen and something to write on.” That, of course, took her quite some time.
“Well, that was the last thing I expected to hear in such an emergency, and I thought, ‘How hopeless’,” the woman said.
Meantime, the gunmen relieved the businessman of his jewellery – a chain and a ‘fat’ gold band he was wearing and also took away a ‘grey bag’ that he had thrown down in the kitchen before heading for the washroom. Contrary to information appearing in a section of the media that the men made off with Ramlal’s weapon, they did not, the relative said. The weapon was retrieved and handed over to the police, the woman said.
After shooting the target and relieving him of his jewellery, the men scaled the fence and beat a hasty retreat across a nearby plot of rice land and disappeared into the darkness.
When Ramlal’s family and other villagers felt sure that the men had gone, they rushed to the scene, where they found his lifeless body on the ground just outside the door. He probably succumbed instantly as he bled profusely. There were also bullet holes in the washroom door, and two on the side of a cupboard.
News of the tragedy swirled with ‘lightning’ speed and there was loud wailing from family members and neighbours as they arrived on the scene. Relatives said that friends and relatives from other villages hastened to La Jalousie on receiving the message.
“But the disappointing part of it is that it took the police one hour for the first two ranks to get here from Leonora Police Station. People from Herstelling, Georgetown, Parika, all over, reached here before the police. What they were doing, I don’t know,” the distraught relative related.

In response to the Chronicle’s question as to whether there were security cameras installed in the home, the relative replied no. She said, however, that just about two weeks ago, Ramlal had brought some surveillance cameras but had put the boxes down in the kitchen and never had them installed. To date the boxes are in the kitchen unopened.
Ramlal is survived by his wife Monica Ramlal, daughter Christine and other relatives and friends. An autopsy is to be performed on the body tomorrow.

By Shirley Thomas
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