THE shooting of then CLICO Judicial Manager/Commissioner of Insurance, Maria van Beek has remained a cold case, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud reported yesterday.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law Enforcement) added that, since the prime suspect in the crime was shot and killed in Robb Street, sometime ago, nothing new came up.Persaud said, after that person of interest was identified, they had been hunting him but never got the opportunity to question him due to his death.
van Beek was driving along Lombard Street, also in Georgetown, on her way to work on April 16, 2009 and had slowed down, owing to the traffic congestion, when a lone gunman came up and shot through the driver’s side of her vehicle, a police release had stated, after the incident.
It revealed that the bullet struck van Beek to her chest, after which the shooter escaped on a waiting ‘CG’ motorcycle ridden by an accomplice.
The police said they were alerted and patrols dispatched to the scene while roadblocks were set up and several searches carried out in the efforts to locate the two suspects.
Persaud said they were treating the shooting as attempted murder, because no attempt was made to rob van Beek. The attacker just walked to van Beek’s car and fired once before escaping.
HEAVY DOWNPOUR

At the time, there was a heavy downpour at about 08:15 hrs but, later, a truck driver, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed van Beek’s car had slammed into the back of his vehicle after she was injured.
The man said the traffic was moving at a snail’s pace when he saw two men cut across in front of his truck and head south on Lombard Street. It was shortly after that he heard what sounded like a gunshot.
He said he heard the sound but concluded it could not be a tyre blowout and, when he looked in his rear view mirror, he saw the woman clutching her chest and then he felt an impact as her car collided with the rear of his truck.
Meanwhile, someone else close to the family, who did not want to be named either, told the Guyana Chronicle, yesterday, they are puzzled that the police had information that the ‘hit man’ was killed in the city but did not pursue the investigation as to who paid him to kill van Beek.
The source criticised the police for, allegedly, showing less interest in further investigations.
However, van Beek is overseas still is trying to cope with her circumstances.