JENITTA Daniels, mother of dead Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ivelaw Murray said, yesterday, she is convinced that her son was murdered. She said two firearms were used and she is in receipt of vital information about how he met his death at Springlands, Corentyne, Berbice.
The woman claimed Murray was taken from his office, after he was rendered unconscious, to the Springlands seawall, where he was shot once, then carried to his Hashim Street, Springlands home and shot a second time.
Mrs. Daniels said no warhead was recovered from the scene or from the corpse of the deceased although both bullets exited his body and he was only dressed in a pair of three-quarters pants, with a .38 revolver in his hands.
She told the Guyana Chronicle that the pathologist has since visited their house, where the worst fears were confirmed.
She said, she, recently, went to Springlands to uplift her son’s belongings but was advised that she cannot get his wedding band and his cellular phone but the instrument is being used.
His television and video cassette recorder (VCR) are missing from his residence to which they only got access after making some calls to senior members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), following a “royal runaround,” she asserted.
According to her, after serving the GPF for 15 years, Murray was shot and killed like a dog and no one is willing to speak the truth about how he died.
She demanded that he be granted a military funeral as he did not take his own life nor murder Kelvin Shepherd, as the Police are claiming.
Daniels said, from information received, Murray was killed long before Constable Shepherd was in the Springlands Police Station barrack room.
“I can no longer hold back. I have not shed a tear yet. I know my son did not kill himself, he was a victim of corruption,” she charged.
Daniels said she was overseas when she got the tragic news and returned to Guyana last week Wednesday.
She said Murray’s stepfather, retired Senior Superintendent of Police Ivan Daniels learnt of the incident through a telephone call from a relative who resides in Berbice.

Bribe
“What is the Police hiding? Why is the truth being covered up so neatly. But we know what happened and how my son was murdered because he did not accept a bribe and made a pronouncement on a murder in Berbice,” the woman maintained.
She said the last time she was in Guyana, about two weeks ago, she observed that her son was troubled and he confided in her.
She said he revealed that he had witnessed the post mortem examination on a man who was shot dead at a wedding house but the matter was settled and nothing came out of the murder, because the shooter paid quite a substantial sum of money to some policemen.
She said a bribe was also offered to her son and, after he declined, was pressured since.
She is of the opinion that her son was killed because he did not condone corruption that is being practised at the highest level in Berbice.
Daniels said she knows the names of the policemen involved in her son’s killing but does not have enough evidence to make a pronouncement before time surely reveals the truth.
The woman said her son is a qualified person who took pride in his work and dismissed statements that he was gay, noting that he had a baby daughter and a wife.
“He never displayed gay tendencies and I am sure my son was not gay. They just want to dirty his name,” she said.
Police Commissioner Henry Greene had said, based on information received, Murray and Shepherd were murder/suicide victims who shared a close relationship.
He expressed sadness at the tragedy and said the men were so close that Murray used to provide meals for Shepherd, while they were both stationed at Springlands.
Greene said Murray even allowed Shepherd to drive his car, visit his home and gave him privileges in the Enquiries Office, which he deemed “inappropriate conduct.”
The Commissioner said there is no law that says policemen cannot be friends and share a relationship at work but the GPF is not happy about what happened, although it cannot do more than it is already doing, in terms of training and mentoring ranks to work in accordance with the Standing Orders.
Greene said his understanding is that the policemen were friends but did not share an intimate relationship, as was reported in a section of the print media quoting the Divisional Commander, Assistant Commissioner Steve Merai, who had been asked to elaborate on the relationship between the two dead ranks, after it was reported that one killed the other before taking his own life early two Sunday mornings ago.

Argument
A Police release said Murray and Shepherd were involved in an argument in the Barrack Room at Springlands Police Station, from where a gunshot was heard.
The release said the Subordinate Officer-in-Charge of Traffic at the station went to ascertain what had happened and, as he was going up, he saw Murray hurriedly descending the stairs.
He enquired of him but, having got no response from Murray who left the station compound; the Subordinate Officer (SO) proceeded upstairs to the Barrack Room where he found Shepherd with a gunshot wound to the head.
Checks were made but no spent shell was found at the scene and subsequent efforts, by senior Police officers, to contact Murray proved futile.
Later, though, ranks entered his home and discovered him lying on the floor of the living room with a gunshot wound below the chin and the Force service revolver in his hand, with three live rounds and three spent shells nearby.
The Police said it was confirmed that the gun was issued to Murray from the station and was sent to the Ballistics Section for testing while personnel from the Police Office of Professional Responsibility travelled to Berbice to assist with the investigations into the deaths.